December, 2022

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The Importance of "One New Thing"

Game Developer

Success criteria come in all shapes and sizes. This time, I talk about the need to offer players something unique, something they haven’t experienced before.

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Destiny 2 | Games of the Year 2022

GamesIndustry.biz

Picking a live service title for my 2022 game of the year felt like a bit of a copout, and I'm sure at any other game website, it may be perceived as such. If this piece had to be about a game released this year, I have some solid favourites: God of War: Ragnarok, Citizen Sleeper, and Neon White, to name a few. Alas, tomorrow is my last day at this wonderful website, so I'll do what I want.

Games 132
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Made with Unity: 2022 in review

Unity Blog

It can be hard for us – let alone all of you – to keep up with everything that the Unity community is creating at any given moment. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this roundup of highlights of Made with Unity games from 2022.

Games 131
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14 low-budget, highly successful story games

Game Analytics

One of the reasons why hyper-casual games are so popular is due to how quick and easy they are to make. Simple controls, artwork, and game design make it easy for any developer to pick up. But hyper-casual isn’t the only way to go. There are other ways to build a game on a budget. One way is narrative. We’ve talked a lot about how to add new layers to your games by simply layering in a story.

Horror 109
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Q&A: Kathryn Spetch, consultant at Odgers Berndtson, Global Gaming Practice on recruitment

Game Development News

Ahead of next month’s DEVELOP/JOBS, Richie Shoemaker questions a number of recruitment experts, to see what how working and finding work in today’s games industry is changing and the issues studios and potential hires might have to face.

Studios 105
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Fan Collective Unimatrix 47: Star Trek Prodigy’s “Ghost in the Machine” Episode

Game Industry News

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. Okay, fair enough, Star Trek: Prodigy , we’ve been overdue for a Holodeck Malfunction Episode, but “Ghost in the Machine” feels more like it’s a Halloween episode than the third episode from season one’s end. Still, as we’re getting to know the characters a bit more in the season’s seventeenth episode, especially the side characters, it would be nice to get a fun romp before the end, but that’s not exactly what we get either.

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ArtStation is hiding anti-AI artwork images on its platform

Game Developer

ArtStation continues to be embroiled in the controversy of AI artwork on its platform.

AI 364

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Free gamedev tools and art packs to kick-start your next project

Unity Blog

We’ve compiled top-rated tools and starter packs to support your next project. Whether you’re an expert game developer or just beginning, discover a selection of free assets available now.

Art 106
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Cascadeur Release And It’s Free(*)

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com. Cascadeur Release And It’s Free(*). AI assisted animation software Cascadeur, which first entered open beta back in July of 2020, finally shipped version 1.0. Best of all, the release has a very reasonable pricing structure with a very functional free tier. Cascadeur is available on Windows and Linux with a Mac version beginning development with … Cascadeur Release And It’s Free(*) Read More.

Beta 102
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 10

Mircosoft Game Dev

Happy holidays! We have been enjoing Godot 4.0 betas for over three months now, and we are glad to see it get more stable and usable every week. Every beta release so far has included a lot of fixes in one or more key areas, and the next major version of the engine starts to finally look complete. Beta 10 will be the last dev snapshot of the year 2022, as a lot of our contributors will no doubt be slowing down for the end of year celebrations and some quality family time.

Beta 99
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Fan Collective Unimatrix 47: Star Trek Prodigy’s “Mindwalk” Episode

Game Industry News

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. Mind-swapping has been with Trek since the first Enterprise , and while “ Turnabout Intruder ” will never, ever be my favorite episode, it does handle the body swapping nicely. I can say the same of “ Mindwalk.” Kate Mulgrew really steals the show as Dal in Janeway’s body, though Brett Grey’s performance is certainly solid. However, “Mindwalk” isn’t about fun and “Freaky Friday” shenanigans.

Concepts 105
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Game Developer’s best of 2022: Danielle Riendeau’s top six games of the year

Game Developer

From Into the Breach: Advanced Edition to Citizen Sleeper and Stray , these are the games that stuck with our EIC.

Editing 309
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Microsoft calls FTC unconstitutional

GamesIndustry.biz

Microsoft yesterday filed its response to the US Federal Trade Commission's antitrust complaint over its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, as reported by CNBC. The 37-page response covers numerous arguments Microsoft has already made in public or to other regulators, stating a lack of incentive to make Call of Duty exclusive, a desire to grow its minimal footprint in the mobile gaming space, and painting Sony's protestations as those of a dominant market leader looking to hinder disru

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The top 22 mobile games of 2022

Game Analytics

It’s been a busy year. Mergers and acquisitions left, right, and centre. New ownership of Twitter. More progress with NFTs and Web3. Even tighter regulations with the app stores. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But one thing that hasn’t changed is new hit games entering the market. And boy, we’ve been spoiled for choice over the last 12 months.

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Become a better animator — top tips to optimize your online learning

CG Spectrum

As a mentor of the 2D animation courses at CG Spectrum—an online training center—Hubert Lapointe ( Rick and Morty , Solar Opposites ) knows a thing or two about e-learning. With years of experience, including his own educational pursuits, Hubert shares his core tips on how to optimize learning animation online. Although Hubert's article uses animation-specific examples, his advice still applies on a more general level, no matter your career path.

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Bucking the Recession in Mobile Gaming

Deconstructor of Fun

In data.ai and Deconstructor of Fun’s latest collaborative report, we dive deep into a comprehensive analysis of the mobile gaming sector and which genres are defying the economic slowdown. You can access the interactive charts and download the full report here. After soaring to new heights during the lockdowns, mobile gaming got hit by platform privacy changes and an overall decrease in engagement as the world opened up again.

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Fan Collective Unimatrix 47: Star Trek Prodigy’s “Preludes” Episode

Game Industry News

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. While intellectually I knew that the backstories for Rok and Jankom Pog weren’t going to be full of sunshine and rainbows, Prodigy once again startled me with just how dark Rok’s story really was. Jankom’s was more existentially terrifying, but it was no less tragic. In the sixteenth episode of season one, Prodigy doesn’t shy away from the themes it wants to develop, which I knew, but I really wasn’t quite prepared for what “ Preludes ” had in store.

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Pushing the boundaries of AI and psychology in darkwebSTREAMER

Game Developer

Inspired by the strange cultural zeitgeist that has resulted in the emergence of parasocial relationships between streamers and viewers, darkwebSTREAMER explores how far people will go for fame, fortune or friendship.

AI 238
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75% of public comments on Microsoft-Activision were in favor of deal, says UK CMA

GamesIndustry.biz

Roughly three quarters of public comments on the proposed Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard were in favor of the deal going through, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority revealed today. The comments were collected over two weeks in October as part of the regulator's inquiry into the deal. It received roughly 2,600 emails, but excluded around 500 because "they contained abusive content (with no other substantive content), or were blank, unintelligible, stated to be from non-UK co

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Diving into the past with Robert Zemeckis

Filmustage

Robert Zemeckis is a director with a rather interesting fate. He entered the big cinema stage as the author of major films and gave the world several iconic pictures filled with deep reflections on the past and future. Zemeckis does not claim the laurels of an auteur indie film, but he and other visionaries of technology were not afraid to radically experiment with the forms of cinematography.

Film 98
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Filmmaking in Unreal Engine — how Hanny created her arthouse cinematic

CG Spectrum

CG Spectrum graduate Hanny Lu talks about her experience studying Unreal Connectors: Virtual Production , a 12-week micro-credentialing program created in partnership with Epic Games. Hanny shares her visually stunning final project with us, a short cinematic called Naima , detailing how she created her scenes in Unreal Engine, where she drew her inspiration from, and how the technical and creative support of her industry expert mentors allowed her to bring her vision to fruition.

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Why You Need a Unity Specialist for your Unity Game Development

Starloop Studios

There’s a reason that games on Unity make up somewhere around half of all games on mobile, PC, and console. Unity game development is user friendly, accessible, highly customisable, and offers a wide range of opportunities for developers to implement into their final gaming experience. Unreal Engine 5 is competitive with Unity, [.].

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Fan Collective Unimatrix 47: Star Trek Prodigy’s “Supernova, Part 1” Episode

Game Industry News

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. “ Supernova, Part 1 ” is every bit a penultimate episode, in that it addresses certain trailing plotlines without resolving others. Dal really shines in this episode, both for his resolute determination to do his best for his friends and crew but also for Starfleet, the group that will, eventually, reject him. We also get a lovely return to the season’s opening theme of the importance of communication and how it works to bring people together even where it requires effort

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Smash director Sakurai says he is "semi-retired" from game development

Game Developer

Sakurai's time at Nintendo and game development may be winding down.

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Five Criterion veterans depart after Need for Speed Unbound launch

GamesIndustry.biz

There has been significant changes at EA's Criterion studio following the departure of five of its longest-serving leaders. Matt Webster, VP and GM of Criterion, has left the studio. Webster has been with Criterion for over 23 years, and has been working for EA since 1990. He was part of the initial team responsible for the first FIFA game. Also departing is executive producer Pete Lake, who first joined Criterion back in 1996 as an artist.

Studios 98
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How Splitting Point caught 80% more bugs with real-time data

Game Analytics

Catching 80% of their bugs. One of the main reasons that Splitting Point integrated GameAnalytics was because of our bug-tracking capabilities through our error reporting dashboard. This was particularly important to the studio as the Roblox platform is extremely fast-paced. They would be updating their game every week, and finish the changes two hours before the deadline.

Data 97
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 9

Mircosoft Game Dev

Godot 4.0 has been in beta for over three months , and the overall feature completeness, stability and usability have improved a lot during that time. We continue to release a new snapshot every week to get fast feedback on our bugfixes, and potential regressions they may introduce. Thank you for your rigorous testing and timely reports! This beta includes a few big changes which may interest a lot of users: String and StringName are now mostly cross-compatible throughout the engine API, as well

Beta 97
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NodeToy – Online Shader Editor

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com. NodeToy – Online Shader Editor. NodeToy is a new online tool for creating GLSL shaders. Using a visual node based approach and designed specifically for (and using) Three.JS, NodeToy provides all the tools you need to create, preview and export shaders visually. Features of NodeToy include: Key Links NodeToy Homepage Documentation You can learn more … NodeToy – Online Shader Editor Read More.

Shaders 96
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A Complete Guide to Salesforce QA Testing in 2023

Rocket Brush Studio

Salesforce is, without a doubt, the most recognized customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Due to the system being flexible and supporting companies of all sizes across every industry, it requires continuous testing, regular maintenance and constant feature upgrades in order for your business to remain competitive.

Feature 96
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Private Division signs deal with Bloober Team, rolls out new dev fund

Game Developer

It's Private Division's 5-year anniversary, and the company is celebrating with a new publishing deal with Bloober Team and a fund to invest in smaller developers.

Dev 235
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Unity 2022.2: Inside the new Tech Stream update

GamesIndustry.biz

Game tech has come a long way since Unity’s inception 18 years ago. It’s being used by a wider array of creators for a more diverse spread of projects than ever before, in tandem with the gaming medium’s tremendous increase in breadth as well as scale. As such, the Unity engine has had to continually evolve, both setting and supporting trends in the game dev space.

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Fruit Ninja dev talks porting to VR

Game Analytics

Obsessed with making games that people will remember for a lifetime, Halfbrick decided to convert their hit title, Fruit Ninja , into a VR game. It was a natural evolution – people apparently really enjoy slicing fruit and swinging swords. After that success, they created Fruit Ninja VR 2 – adding more features and exploration to the game. “Making a game for VR is very, very different,” said Liam Potter, one of the lead gameplay programmers on Fruit Ninja VR 2.

Dev 97
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Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 7

Mircosoft Game Dev

Godot 4.0 has been in beta for over two months , and the overall feature completeness, stability and usability have improved a lot during that time. We've had beta snapshots every other week, and now we've decided to accelerate the cadence to release a new snapshot every week, to get even faster feedback on our bugfixes, and the potential regressions they may introduce.

Beta 96
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Features of Unreal Engine 5 That Will Revolutionise the Gaming Industry

Starloop Studios

The gaming industry is on the precipice of a major change. The next generation of consoles have arrived, and with them, a new era of gaming. We’ve seen glimpses of what the future holds and it looks amazing with incredible load speeds and graphical capabilities. One of the most impressive things to come out of [.].

Feature 94
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A Complete Guide to Personally Identifiable Information

Rocket Brush Studio

These days, a lot of businesses operate remotely, which means that employees work outside of their secure corporate networks. Thus, the importance of cybersecurity increases. It safeguards all types of information from loss and damage, including sensitive data and personally identifiable information (PII). It is essential to inform your workforce about typical cyber threats that are used to steal confidential information.

Data 94
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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard respond to FTC's acquisition lawsuit

Game Developer

In case it weren't clear already, both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard really want this acquisition to go through.

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IGN part of Ziff Davis layoffs

GamesIndustry.biz

IGN has undergone a series of layoffs, according to a number of staff and former staff on Twitter. GamesIndustry.biz understands that IGN's content, engineering, and ad sales teams have been impacted, with the number of people out of work at least in the double digits. The cuts are part of a larger restructuring across IGN parent Ziff Davis, with other business units also impacted.

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