Pixelles launches Prototype Fund to support marginalized gender devs in Canada
Game Developer
MAY 2, 2023
The Canadian non-profit is offering non-recoupable grants of up to $10,000 CAD.
Solo dev Tuomas Auronen (Redbeak Games) “Hardest part is financial uncertainty”
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 20, 2024
Solo dev Tuomas Auronen , operating under the name Redbeak Games , looks pretty relieved three days after the launch of his game Mortal Glory 2. When his last game, that he spent 17 months working on, flopped, Auronen felt the pressure to make enough money to support his family. What’s your creative process? “It’s
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ID@Xbox launches new acceleration program to empower underrepresented devs
Game Developer
MARCH 21, 2023
The program will focus on key areas including porting, information, and prototypes.
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Solo dev Jason Larabie of Rodent Games works after hours on Artificer’s Tower “I live a dual life”
PreMortem.Games
MARCH 13, 2024
When the allure of game development clashes with the necessity of a traditional job, the only choice is to juggle both endeavors simultaneously. I simply couldn’t shake off my passion for making games. So, I ended up living a dual life, working my day job and moonlighting as a developer. This is a tricky question.
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What are game development jobs that most people have not heard of?
Ask a Game Dev
JULY 6, 2023
Prototype Artist - an art generalist who specializes in putting together usable art for a game prototype. They know the quick and dirty hacks and key knowledge to get what’s needed into the game and working, rather than focusing on finishing out production quality assets.
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Addendum to cut content: people find remnants of cut content in game files often enough. So/but is there any even rough estimate you could give of cut content that’s dug up versus cut stuff that could never be found?
Ask a Game Dev
APRIL 10, 2024
Some cut content never goes beyond existence in documents, let alone a prototype. Most gets a few iterations on a prototype before the plug gets pulled, often because we can't find the fun in the idea within the time we've allotted to it. The other thing is that cut content often comes in various degrees of completion.
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Board Game Development – Wait Like a Champ by Using Downtime Wisely
Brand Game Development
JUNE 30, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Last week in the Dev Diary, I talked about how board game development is a long, ongoing process with a lot of different stages. Need help on your board game?
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Makhoba Kamogelo: “Don’t let fear stop you from reinventing yourself”
PreMortem.Games
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
Now, she’s navigating the world of game development, where each day brings new challenges and exciting discoveries. Let’s take a trip back memory lane and find out when the seed of game development was planted and how each part of Kamo’s past adds up. This knowledge helps me create architectural designs in games.
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In regard to the vertical slice. Do studios work on/produce it to pitch a game or is it used as a milestone to reassure the money people that the game is progressing? (or both)?
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 27, 2024
The vertical slice is a big milestone in a game's development because it shows the entire game coming together in a cohesive play experience. Since it shows all of the major systems in the game working together, it naturally answers most questions about how the game will play. Call of Duty, Pokemon, Madden, etc.).
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How to Diagnose Failure & Move Forward as a Board Game Developer
Brand Game Development
MAY 14, 2018
Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Failure can involve missed deadlines, lost clients, scrapped prototypes, controversial public statements, or no-show events. Were there physical issues that made the game difficult to play?
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Two engineers build the physics-driven engineering parody The Enjenir
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 9, 2023
We effectively combined our love for gaming, our skills in the Unreal Engine, with our engineering profession. What originally started out as a treehouse building simulator prototype, slowly evolved as the duo gradually added different mechanics. “It Does it improve the mechanics of the game? And it resulted in The Enjenir.”
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You have talked about certain things young designers can do that will set them up for failure, namely not studying in college, not prototyping ideas, and trying to burn themselves out by working to hard at the beginning and then slowing down later. What are other common early mistakes that will make a game developers job harder?
Ask a Game Dev
FEBRUARY 16, 2024
One common mistake I see with young devs is that they invest too much of their identities into what they do for work. I was the game dev. I worked on famous games that most people had played, or at least heard of. I would caution young devs to avoid this. The game doesn't sell well and there's layoffs.
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Rami Ismail • Find your USP by describing the game in one or two sentences
PreMortem.Games
APRIL 15, 2024
This article is part of the game-dev advice newsletter Levelling the Playing Field by Rami Ismail. If you want to know more about the art, craft and science of game development, subscribe here. The newsletter is free but you can support the existence of LTPF with a small subscription fee.
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5 Lessons I Learned at a Play-Testing Convention (Protospiel Atlanta)
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 27, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Last Saturday and Sunday, I attended my first board gaming convention – Protospiel in Atlanta. Prototype of a beach volleyball game by Julio Nazario. Need help on your board game?
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You Are Not Alone: Common Pains for Game Devs & How to Overcome Them
Brand Game Development
MAY 15, 2017
Whenever I saw a complaint from a game dev pop up on my Twitter feed, I recorded it in Excel. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. So many of the struggles that we deal with in game development are shared by others in the industry.
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The One Thing That Can Sink Sales for Board Games
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 13, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This week, I posted A Crash Course on Selling Board Games , which is my way of helping demystify that which terrifies many first-time game developers. Need help on your board game?
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Dean Gichukie’s studio Kunta Content delivers authentic African stories
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 30, 2023
In 2021, Kunta Content won at the Africa Game Dev program, a game development training initiative sponsored by Epic MegaGrants and run by NetInfo. Subsequently, they entered the Spielfabrique program, a Franco-German accelerator for young game studios, securing funding from Ubisoft to enhance Hiru’s prototype.
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Godot Engine receives $120,000 grant from game development studio Kefir
Mircosoft Game Dev
FEBRUARY 10, 2021
We are delighted to announce that the game development studio Kefir is giving the Godot Engine project a USD 120,000 grant to fund further development of the engine. Thank you Kefir for supporting our free and open source game engine! Many thanks to the Godot team for their incredible contribution to game development.
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When it comes to copy writing (for press and pitches) forget the fluff and start to BLUF
PreMortem.Games
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
This article is part of the game-dev advice newsletter Levelling the Playing Field by Rami Ismail. If you want to know more about the art, craft and science of game development, subscribe here. The newsletter is free but you can support the existence of LTPF with a small subscription fee.
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How to Play a Lot of Board Games with Little Time and Little Money
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This week with Highways & Byways , I’ve been making little improvements to the game to make it more usable and easy-to-understand. Need help on your board game? Click here.
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How Many Blind Play-Tests Does Your Board Game *Really* Need?
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 22, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. I even blind play-tested it at a game design convention. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
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The Art of the Paper Test: Catching Accessibility Issues Early
Brand Game Development
MAY 19, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. prior to and during its Kickstarter campaign, but it is also my favorite rapid prototyping tool. Still, Tabletop Simulator is just one form of digital play testing for board games.
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5 Alternatives to Kickstarter for Your Board Game
Brand Game Development
MARCH 22, 2021
Yet I want to make it absolutely clear that Kickstarter is not the only, or even necessarily the best, way for indie board game developers to self-publish their work. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.
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Game Dev Glossary: Prototype, Vertical Slice, First Playable, MVP, Demo
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 29, 2024
Prototype - A playable example of a single gameplay system to prove out the concept. Examples might be character movement, a combat combo system, or a specific game mechanic. The above screenshot is from the Breath of the Wild systems prototype - wind, fire, etc.
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What’s the point of board game reviews?
Brand Game Development
MAY 1, 2017
One of the most jarring experiences for new game developers is the process of getting their game reviewed. Drama aside, it truly is difficult at first because you have to identify reviewers, send prototypes, make sure your game is ready enough, cross your fingers, and hope they like it. You can keep a dev diary.
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4 Clever Ways to Market Your Board Game Online for $30.00
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 22, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. The post 4 Clever Ways to Market Your Board Game Online for $30.00
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Talking Without Words
Brand Game Development
JULY 21, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This week, in Start to Finish: Publish and Sell Your First Board Game , I released Five Levels of Communication through Game Development. Need help on your board game?
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The Final 100 Play-Tests: How to Put Final Touches on a Board Game
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 8, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. This is a process I follow to ensure a game’s quality. This method may not be appropriate for every developer, every team, or every game, but it is one I like. Click here.
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How to Tell When Play-Testing Feedback is Useful or Not
Brand Game Development
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Play-testing is so critical in board game development that I’ve dedicated several articles to the subject. ” Need help on your board game? Click here.
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How We Printed the Tasty Humans Board Game Kickstarter
Brand Game Development
FEBRUARY 24, 2020
Today, I’m going to talk about how we got this game printed. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. What goes into printing a board game? How did we make the game specs? I talked about fulfillment already. What did we do well?
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How to Get Started with Board Game Conventions as a Board Game Creator, Part 1
Brand Game Development
JUNE 11, 2018
As such, board game developers often find their own interest in conventions piqued. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. I met many of my local testers at Wiscon – many of whom backed the game on Kickstarter.
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Tell Your Artist What You Want – Making Good Art Specs
Brand Game Development
JUNE 2, 2017
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Great art is one of the most critical parts of a board game. As game developers, we have only a handful of tools at our disposal to help teach players what a game is about and how to play it. .”
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How to Work in a Team in the Board Game Industry
Brand Game Development
OCTOBER 23, 2017
I’ve talked about the benefits and challenges of working alone in the board game industry. Yet I’m a bit of an odd beast in the board game development world since most people prefer to work in teams. Need help on your board game? This is unusual for most game devs, I think.
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War Stories: Endless Eight
Ask a Game Dev
MAY 22, 2023
The game finally launched and we were still regularly rebuilding large parts of core gameplay as part of post-launch content updates. Normally, I’m fine with this kind of iteration early in the development process - it’s totally normal to try a lot of things with prototypes when you’re in preproduction.
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Mordhau on consoles: “A lot of smoke and mirrors go into making things hit”
PreMortem.Games
JULY 17, 2023
First person slasher genre Triternion was officially founded in 2017, but the roots go back as far as 2014 when two developers built the initial prototypes and explorations in the first person slasher genre. “The indie game developer scene in Slovenia is growing, but is still relatively small.
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Board Game Designer vs. Developer vs. Publisher
Brand Game Development
DECEMBER 17, 2018
Let’s start with three roles: board game designer, developer, and publisher. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. The first thing you need to know about designer, developer, and publisher roles is simple. The lines are blurry.
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Double Fine PsychOdyssey recaps / viewing guide, episodes 01-17
Radiator Blog
MARCH 16, 2023
Last month, game industry documentary makers 2 Player Productions debuted a massive 32-part YouTube game dev doc series Double Fine PsychOdyssey , chronicling the development of Psychonauts 2 from its earliest glimmers of pre-production in 2015 to its final release in 2021.
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An Inside Look at the Board Game Review Process
Brand Game Development
JULY 2, 2018
Much of the anxiety that new game developers experience when sending their games off to reviewers comes from the opaqueness of the process. That’s why I’ve brought in Dez Maggs of goto.game to talk about what goes into the board game review process. Need help on your board game? What do reviews involve?
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Godot Web export progress report #3
Mircosoft Game Dev
OCTOBER 27, 2020
Additionally, a new prototype version of the Godot Web Editor is now available for you to try out. After way too long, a new prototype version of the Godot Web Editor is online. It is also used to write bindings that allow game developers to write game logic in the programming language of their choice (e.g.
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Godot Showcase - Primal Light developer interview
Mircosoft Game Dev
MARCH 4, 2021
Around 4 years ago, I was learning how to program (in order to do natural language processing) when it suddenly dawned on me that I had probably learned enough to be able to make a game. I prototyped a little top-down Zelda clone and showed it to my friend Jeff one night while we were hanging out at his apartment. or thereabouts.
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Ask a Game Dev - Untitled Article
Ask a Game Dev
JUNE 26, 2023
Keep in mind that “make it happen” could mean “build a prototype to demonstrate the gameplay or principle at work”, not necessarily an entire finished product. If you go into game development, you’ll often be asked to come up with ideas to solve problems. Remember, ideas are only good if they can be made a reality.
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How to Get Your Board Game Reviewed
Brand Game Development
JANUARY 19, 2018
Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. The board game review process is one of the most important parts of game development. Need help on your board game? Why are board game reviews important? Click here.
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How to Get Started with Board Game Conventions as a Board Game Creator, Part 2
Brand Game Development
JUNE 18, 2018
It should come as no surprise that many game creators go to conventions to pick up customers. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. Some also mix in booths to show off game prototypes which are ready for industry/semi-public viewing.
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How to build successful VR games as a solo developer
Game Analytics
JANUARY 3, 2023
So to get his advice and learn his secrets, we sat down to hear his story and journey as a solo-game developer. I always wanted to make games – I even did small projects when I was a teen and carried on while studying computer science. Having a full-time job ate into Sergio’s personal dev time. Here’s what he had to say.
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