PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Cocoon is the first venture of Geometric Interactive , a Danish indie studio founded by Carlsen and his ex-Playdead colleague, Jakob Schmid. Complex feature The core concept of worlds within worlds was the first feature prototyped for Cocoon, undergoing substantial improvement and iteration.

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Puzzle Prototyping Art Communications 257

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 30, 2023

This Kenyan-based studio is on a mission to tell authentic, ultra-African stories. Inspired by Kunta Kinte from the historical book and miniseries ‘Roots’, their studio name and logo also hold a powerful secret, the numbers 17 and 67, symbolising the year Kunta Kinte was captured. One alone is incomplete. It’s a long one.

Content 156

Content Studios Writing Prototyping 156

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

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. Co-founded by Adrian Olczyk and Karolina Pytka, the fully remote studio has been crafting unique multiplayer puzzle experiences since its inception in 2020.

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Puzzle Mechanics Communications Studios 138

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 28, 2024

Set in a beautiful, Slavic-inspired world, Selfloss by Kazakhstan-based indie studio Goodwin Games is an adventure that explores themes of grief, healing, and resilience. When I’m prototyping, I keep adjusting the visuals until I feel something click in my heart, when it feels like it’s beautiful.”

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Prototyping Indy Games Concepts 104

PreMortem.Games

JULY 5, 2024

We wanted to turn the typical team-shooter on its head and create a game unlike anything else in the shooter genre,” says Fun Dog Studios CEO and Creative Director Miles Williams. Or die trying The team at Fun Dog Studios developed a dynamic combat system that keeps NPC enemies constantly fighting each other. Or die trying.”

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Studios Fighting NPC Art 166

GamesIndustry.biz

APRIL 19, 2024

Launching this summer, the Global Games Fund will offer studios grants of between $5,000 and $50,000 to assist with games in the prototype stage or pre-production. Read more

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Prototyping Dev Games Studios 138

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 1, 2024

As avid fans of Studio Ghibli’s animated movie Porco Rosso, Rob Hartley and Diccon Yamanaka were inspired to create a game about seaplanes flying around in a beautiful Mediterranean setting. As we were prototyping there was still a feeling the game needed more action. Based in Vancouver, Canada, The Brew Barons is their debut title.

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Studios Prototyping Visual Scripting Art 104

Ask a Game Dev

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

Do studio leads make that kind of call, or project leads? A big decision like this tends to come from agreement between the dev team's executive producer, the studio head, and the publishing executives. Where does a decision like taking DA4 from single player to live service back to single player most likely come from?

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Dev Studios Prototyping Content 59

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

From there, we tested a variety of prototypes and selected the ones that were the most fun, engaging and fit naturally into the theme of our town.” ” Working on Wall Town Wonders has made the studio ‘incredibly enthusiastic’ about the potential of Mixed Reality. Our main focus right now is on this game.

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Games Mechanics Prototyping Build 118

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Seattle, USA-based studio Polyarc showcased the highly immersive nature of VR earlier with their popular puzzle platformer Moss. He explains: “Interestingly enough, when the studio was founded, there were two prototypes that were built. That ultimately became Moss as you know. We can do really quick revisions on that.

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Prototyping Puzzle Studios Beta 166

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 7, 2024

FlatPonies , a Copenhagen-based game development studio, is finally launching Rebots , a first-person automation game that invites players to explore a universe full of quirky robots and expansive worlds. We’ve gotten much better at the practical stuff of making things, prototyping, implementing and polishing,” Porkoláb notes.

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Playtesting Prototyping Development First person 265

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 13, 2023

The Netherlands may be a small country, but there are many talented studios making amazing games. Like Sony Worldwide Studio Guerrilla Games that recently delivered the critically acclaimed PSVR2 title Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Dutch Indies Like Paladin Studios.

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Development Indy Communications Studios 197

GamesIndustry.biz

APRIL 23, 2024

Yes, it's been a particularly rough start to 2024, especially for studios seeking funding. This need for evidence, or traction, is a whole layer developers need to worry about beyond just building a great prototype and putting a strong team together. Read more

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Prototyping Build Studios Development 123

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 4, 2024

Pacific Drive by Ironwood Studios This intangible ‘X-factor’ is often tied to the game’s originality. Developers need to demonstrate a clear understanding of their game’s full scope, progression, and mechanics, even if those details aren’t immediately visible in an early prototype.

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Prototyping Concepts Build Development 151

Radiator Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Yet I feel that the "basic theory" of most sports is still a pretty unexplored domain by the big sports game studios. ( We're currently in pre-production, and we've had some early funding from the fine folks at CODE NZ to support our prototyping -- but now we must brave the Worst Game Funding Climate Yet.

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Games Game Design Game Designer Indy 130

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

John Ikpeme is the CEO of Nigeria-based Dash Studios. Not only has he kept his multi-award-winning game studio thriving, but he’s also integrated his passion for gaming into his career. Even at the bank, they know about Dash Studios and welcome it.” I focus on data at Dash Studios,” says Ikpeme. “I

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Data Studios Animation Animation 104

Perforce

APRIL 28, 2023

Studios are using premade, free game assets to help them iterate more quickly before committing to any particular feature or game mechanic. Here, we will discuss how you can use free game assets — such as Unity free assets — for your video game prototype, and how a digital asset management tool can help.

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Prototyping Asset Game Development Game Developer 52

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Midnight Girl , from indie studio Italic , oozes French cool. We made a prototype of the game, but the climbing part didn’t really work. The post Midnight Girl by indie studio Italic is a cool cat – Cat burglar that is appeared first on PreMortem Games.

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Indy Point and Click Studios Vector Graphics 118

PreMortem.Games

JULY 10, 2024

One notable example is Uncover the Smoking Gun by South Korean studio ReLU Games. Before Smoking Gun, there was a prototype game called Demon, where GPT played the role of an evil spirit, and the player had to find hidden information and banish the spirit through conversation.

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AI Prototyping Technology Games 138

Mnenad

JULY 8, 2018

Prototype is ready! But I can now proudly announce that a playable prototype for the video game GenoTerra is finished (and I graduated with the Master in Design *yay*). Using this method, I tried to reach a new level of visual coherence in the prototype. Watch the new trailer for GenoTerra right here: 96.

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Prototyping Terrain Open World Rigging 52

PreMortem.Games

MAY 19, 2023

Wikkl Works , a Netherlands-based game studio, is working hard on the climbing game New Heights. The 5 person studio, founded by Guido Boogaard and Finn van der Heide, created a climbing system that mirrors the intricacies of real-life climbing. It is great to see that it’s working out so far.”

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Indy Dev Studios Playtesting 104

GamesIndustry.biz

MAY 9, 2023

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Captain Velvet Meteor was the second game released by the cross-continental indie gaming studio Momo-pi.

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Indy Prototyping Console Mobile 102

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 25, 2023

A friend told me to give it a go again last year, so I started working on a prototype.” In the past, I had been part of a 3-person studio that began developing a horror game back in 2015. I started working on a prototype project during my free time, which eventually evolved into Ontotis.” years of development.

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Horror Dev Prototyping Mechanics 197

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Studio owner and Lead Developer Max Hermann originally developed the idea for the game in the time when he was still a computer science student and active in the RimWorld modding scene. Identify key features you need your engine to support, make some prototypes and see if Godot suits you and your game. Just dont jump in blind, he says.

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Dev Development Feature Prototyping 104

Ask a Game Dev

MARCH 10, 2025

Some are a little less detailed, like this [ entry level Technical Designer position at Zenimax Online Studios ]. This is likely a scripter who can help be the glue that gets prototype and placeholder gameplay elements up and running.

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Dev Prototyping Content Scripting 52

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 21, 2023

Both studios say they regularly analyze game dynamics, including downloads and revenue. AZUR have provided extended commentary on the matter: “We rely on internal analytics, test hypotheses across thousands of prototypes, and monitor various ongoing projects. Do you do any testing of the new mechanics before creating a game prototype?

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Prototyping Mechanics Media Games 104

Ask a Game Dev

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

If the game launches well, a significant portion of the team can stay on to do post-launch content and the others can join in-progress projects at the studio or at other studios owned by the publisher. There needs to be other projects in development to pay for those people after the game launches.

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Dev Content Build Prototyping 69

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Inside this special South African studio run by all-female creators, you’ll find Makhoba (Khadija) Kamogelo , also known as Kamo. She prides herself in creating a tribe around the award-winning studio’s title Dungeon Crawler. Initially, getting enough funding to run the studio was a challenge.

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Code Prototyping Engineering Engine 166

GamesIndustry.biz

MARCH 22, 2023

At GDC yesterday, Young Horses' studio head John Murphy looked back at Bugsnax's six years of development, the challenges to follow up on the success of 2014's Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and the lessons it's taking to its next project. Read more

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Prototyping Mechanics Indy Studios 98

Grumpy Gamer

JULY 8, 2011

A publisher handing a developer a big chunk of money to make a game should mean a carefully planned preproduction, and if it's risky from a game play or tech stand point, absolutely build a prototype (not just for them, but for you as well), but doing a vertical slice is just kowtowing to the uncreative.

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Prototyping Build Writing Studios 130

Grumpy Gamer

JULY 7, 2011

A publisher handing a developer a big chunk of money to make a game should mean a carefully planned preproduction, and if it’s risky from a game play or tech stand point, absolutely build a prototype (not just for them, but for you as well), but doing a vertical slice is just kowtowing to the uncreative. It just doesn’t work.

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Prototyping Build Writing Studios 130

PreMortem.Games

MAY 24, 2024

After a year of preparation, while making my first game after work hours, I launched Choose Red Studio with the ambition to create pure experiences, respecting players and everyone involved in the project. I have a lot of respect for big studios that, even with talent and budgets, manage to produce rich, coherent works with real soul.

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Dev Games Co-op Game Design 239

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Cocoon is the first venture of Geometric Interactive , a Danish indie studio founded by Carlsen and his ex-Playdead colleague, Jakob Schmid. Complex feature The core concept of worlds within worlds was the first feature prototyped for Cocoon, undergoing substantial improvement and iteration.

Puzzle 104

Puzzle Prototyping Art Communications 104

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 19, 2023

The four person team at Black Salt Games founded the studio at the end of 2020 after working together at another studio for over a decade. They wanted to break away and create something different, so they started prototyping game ideas to work on. Dredge was one of three prototypes they created.

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Playtesting Rigging Horror Prototyping 118

AWS Games

MARCH 13, 2025

Wednesday, March 19 Effortless Game Launches: How League of Legends Runs at Scale on AWS 10:30am to 11:00am | Room WH2011 Discover how Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends and VALORANT, revolutionized their game server infrastructure with AWS.

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AI Demo Games Build 71

PreMortem.Games

JULY 31, 2024

The indie game that does this especially well is A Space for the Unbound by Mojiken Studio. Coming of age story Mojiken Studio is based in Surabaya, Indonesia and has been around for over ten years. It started as an outsource studio that focused primarily on illustration. ” “In 2015 we did a game jam at Mojiken Studio.

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Art Pixel Studios Media 118

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

It shows the everyday work of medium-scale commercial game dev in unprecedented detail: the creative high of successful collaboration as well as the ugly prototypes, grueling bug fixes, and painful miscommunication. Tech-wise, it's a vertical slice "learn Unreal 4" project, a big shift from a studio that used to roll its own in-house engine.

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Art Concepts Dev Studios 147