Sat.Jan 20, 2024 - Fri.Jan 26, 2024

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Approximately one third of game developers were affected by layoffs last year

Game Developer

According to the GDC 2024 State of the Game Industry report, about a third of game developers were affected by a layoff in 2023.

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Solo developer Csaba Putnai of Bob: A Thousand Lives “My life is filled with many challenges”

PreMortem.Games

All of his life Csaba Putnai has had a fascination for games, but he was well in his forties when he took the step to actually develop a game himself. His debut game Bob: A Thousand Lives , a dark themed action game about a boy that has to escape his all-consuming past, was released last year. “After the loss of my father, I began working on the Bob project and realized that the story and concept had been with me for years”, he says.

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Riot and Microsoft layoffs the same, but different | This Week in Business

GamesIndustry.biz

This Week in Business is our weekly recap column , a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry. It was another brutal week in the industry right from the start, with Riot Games laying off about 530 people on Monday while reciting a lot of the familiar lines we've been hearing for the past year.

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Apple Introduce New Run-Time Fee

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Apple Introduce New Run-Time Fee In response to the EU’s newly instated Digital Markets Act, Apple have just implemented a new Unity-like run-time fee for developers that wish to take advantage of the laws new provisions. The DMA or Digital Markets Act aims to provide the following benefits: In what can only be described as … Apple Introduce New Run-Time Fee Read More The post Apple Introduce New Run-Time Fee appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard layoffs didn't impact a single CWA union member

Game Developer

"Your livelihood is not protected without a voice on the job.

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The gorgeous visuals of Bionic Bay that Juhana Myllys calls Painterly Pixel Art

PreMortem.Games

Physics-based 2D platformer Bionic Bay is a collaboration between the Finnish one-man-studio Mureena and Taiwanese indie game company Psychoflow Studio. The game started as a demo shown on Reddit, but picked up momentum when Badland art director Juhana Myllys offered to mix and match his distinct artwork with the gameplay. “Back in 2019, I was wasting time on Reddit and came across a short clip from a demo in r/indiegaming”, says Myllys.

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CWA says Microsoft's job cuts did not impact the staffers it represents

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Following news that Microsoft laid off 1,900 staffers from its games division, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said that the move has not impacted any of the staffers it represents. The CWA represents some employees from Microsoft divisions, including ZeniMax Studios and Activision Blizzard.

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Former Bungie general counsel says the game industry must unionize

Game Developer

Don McGowan, the former Bungie CLO who pursued Destiny 2 cheaters and players that threatened his coworkers, wants developers to fight for their rights.

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Bukola Akingbade of Kucheza Gaming on nurturing dreams and shaping industries

PreMortem.Games

Bukola Akingbade is many things. She is a mother to three. A role that she holds dear and that inspired her to establish her company Kucheza Gaming. She is also a marketer, entrepreneur and trained architect. In 2020 she decided to channel her decade-plus entrepreneurial experience into her current venture leaving everything behind to focus on gaming.

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Focus Entertainment's Q3 revenue dips 43% and it announces a rebrand

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Focus Entertainment released its third-quarter earnings report, posting a 43% decrease; this was partly attributed to no major releases during the three months ending December 31. The games firm also announced that on April 1, it will be rebranding to Pullup Entertainment.

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Top 4 Scheduling Strategies for Indie Filmmaking on a Tight Timeline

Filmustage

For Indie Filmmaking, the magic of crafting a cinematic vision often clashes with the harsh reality of limited resources and tight timeline production. Budgets are lean, teams are compact, and every minute counts. Time is not merely a metric; it's a precious commodity, demanding strategic allocation and unrelenting efficiency. Resourcefulness becomes a badge of honor, as filmmakers explore innovative solutions to achieve cinematic alchemy within budgetary and temporal constraints.

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Report: Microsoft follows Activision Blizzard merger with 1,900 layoffs

Game Developer

The company spent $68.7 billion on its merger with Activision Blizzard but claims it must now implement a "sustainable cost structure.

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Find the right AI model for your game with Unity and Hugging Face

Unity Blog

Our neural engine for bring AI models to Unity – Unity Sentis – announces a new integration with Hugging Face, plus some product updates for the tool.

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Games industry leaders braced 'for up to two years of pain'

GamesIndustry.biz

The current turmoil in the video games industry will continue all year and likely into 2025, games industry leaders have told GamesIndustry.biz. Speaking to us privately, publishing, development and investment heads have said that continued high interest rates, oversaturated video game stores and cautious investors will result in more restructures, layoffs and closures.

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6 x Operative Changes That Kept SciPlay Growing Despite the Market Headwinds

Deconstructor of Fun

The story behind SciPlay's evolution in the realm of social casino gaming is guided by a commitment to player-centric experiences and a pioneering spirit. In the recent podcast, Mishka has a chat with the CEO of SciPlay, Josh Wilson , tackling the intriguing question of how the company achieved substantial growth in the social casino market amidst an industry decline and post privacy changes.

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Ruiner dev Reikon Games reportedly lays off 80% of staff

Game Developer

January 2024's layoffs continue with alleged cuts at Reikon, which released its debut game Ruiner in 2017.

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Powell Group and Representing Games join forces to create an allround agency

PreMortem.Games

The Powell Group , a full-service game consultancy, and Representing Games , the agency label of game industry matchmaker MeetToMatch, are collaborating. By joining forces the two companies will leverage their complementary strengths to create an allround agency for publishers and developers alike. The collaboration between The Powell Group and Representing Games will focus on providing support for developers and publishers, assisting them in growing their company.

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2025 could very well be the best year in video games sales to date | Opinion

GamesIndustry.biz

It is beginning to look like 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years in video games, if not the biggest. Let us start with the obvious: the release of GTA 6. When it comes to the most successful video entertainment products of all time, for many franchises like Star Wars, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Avatar or maybe Mario come to mind.

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What Is IEC 81001-5-1?

Perforce

IEC 81001-5-1 is a healthcare standard that goes beyond covering medical devices, addressing cybersecurity at every phase of the SDLC for various types of health software. From medical diagnosis software to yoga apps, IEC 81001-5-1 helps organizations ensure software security.

Software 101
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Devs claim Apple has pulled a Unity in the EU with new Core Technology Fee

Game Developer

App Store devs interested in using third-party services in the EU will need to agree to new terms, and a fee that could eventually cost them €0.50 per install.

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Godot Gets Free Nintendo Switch Port

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Godot Gets Free Nintendo Switch Port Until now, if you wanted to port your Godot game engine developed game over to the Nintendo Switch, you either did the work yourself or broke out your credit card and either subscribed to W4Games Consoles or used a porting service such as Lone Wolf Technologies or Pineapple Works. Thankfully, … Godot Gets Free Nintendo Switch Port Read More The post Godot Gets Free Nintendo Switch Port appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Playdemic founders' new studio ForthStar Games will "test and kill" to find its next Golf Clash

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby have quite the track record. The pair set up their first mobile games studio, BattleMail, in 2001 and sold it to (M)Forma a year later. Shortly after, they formed Rockpool Games, made the J2ME edition of Worms, and sold the developer to Eidos/Square Enix in 2007.

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Dough: A Crime RPG

Indie DB

Hello everyone! The Dough Demo is now live on Steam!

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Palworld tops 5M sales after shifting 86,000 copies per hour over the weekend

Game Developer

The Pokemon-esque survival title also eclipsed 1.29 million concurrent users on Steam.

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Tomas Sala on building an indie IP with award-winning Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles

Unity Blog

BAFTA-winning indie developer Tomas Sala, winner of the CommUnity Choice Award at gamescom 2023, shares the development process behind his new game, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles.

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Black Forest Games reportedly cuts 50% of employees

GamesIndustry.biz

THQ Nordic and Embracer subsidiary Black Forest Games has reportedly cut 50% of its workforce. As reported by Kotaku , the layoffs were announced yesterday with a source alleging that the developer's creative directors and "if not all" managers will keep their positions. GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Black Forest Games and Embracer Group for more information regarding the layoffs.

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Tales of Old: Dominus - New area

Indie DB

Showcase of a new area: Hillstowe Abbey - A hamlet rests near, where inhabitants lend a helping hand to pilgrims - "The Name of the Rose" vibes here.

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Destroy All Humans dev Black Forest Games reportedly cuts 50% of staff

Game Developer

Known for remaking the Destroy All Humans games, Black Forest may be the next studio to get hit hard with reductions.

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Moving FROM and TO The Unity Game Engine

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Moving FROM and TO The Unity Game Engine Moving your game assets to and from the Unity game engine has become easier thanks to a pair of “new” addons supporting popular open formats. The first add-on is gltFAST and it supports important and exporting using the gltf open standard. The second add-on is OpenUSD, supporting the USD open … Moving FROM and TO The Unity Game Engine Read More The post Moving FROM and TO The Unity Game Engine appeared first on GameFr

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Counterfeit Square Enix products seized in China

GamesIndustry.biz

Square Enix has revealed that several people have been criminally charged for distributing counterfeit merchandise in China. In a press announcement , the publisher detailed that nine people were charged in May 2023 in Guangdong province. Six were involved with distributing the products, while three were charged for manufacturing. Counterfeit products involving Final Fantasy and Nier: Automata characters were seized as a result.

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Revive & Prosper - Chemical Age

Indie DB

The Chemical Age brings Petroleum Refinery, Chemical plant, and new resources such as Ethylene, Alcohol, and good ol'toxic into the game. And 20 % off this week on Steam and Epic!

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Is NVIDIA's AI-driven NPC tech just really expensive improv?

Game Developer

NVIDIA's AI tech can't beat out improv performances from real actors.

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Dev snapshot: Godot 3.6 beta 4

Mircosoft Game Dev

Godot 3.6 is still in development, slowly but steadily! This snapshot updates toolchains for official builds and adds official Linux ARM binaries, among other improvements.

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UK recruitment firm OPM closes after 26 years

GamesIndustry.biz

Games recruitment specialist One Player Mission (OPM) will close down after 26 years. The agency currently employs 15 people. Managing director Kim Parker-Adcock said that with the current situation in the games industry, she "cannot see how OPM can remain profitable".

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The AMC Squad Episode 5 update

Indie DB

New Enemy projectiles, Airdrops and Airstrikes, Allies and Research projects.

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A whole lot of developers think conglomeration is a very bad idea

Game Developer

"Consolidation of wealth and power inevitably breeds complacency and contempt for workers and consumers.

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Unreal and Unity Humble Bundles

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Unreal and Unity Humble Bundles There are not one but two game development Humble Bundles on right now, the Unreal Apocalypse Essentials Reloaded and the Unity based Fantasy Realms Bundle by Dragonsan Studios. As with most Humble Bundles these are organized into tiers: Unreal Apocalypse Essentials Reloaded 1$ Tier Flag Generator 41 Animations for Monsters … Unreal and Unity Humble Bundles Read More The post Unreal and Unity Humble Bundles appeared first on GameFromScrat

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