Game Developer News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Earlier today, Geoff Keighley revealed the list of nominees for the 2023 Game Awards airing on December 7. And as always, the list of games are dominated by juggernauts that released closer to the start of the year and as recent as last month. 

180 employees in Amazon's video game division are being let go today, according to Aftermath's Nathan Grayson. 

Remedy is rebooting its upcoming free-to-play multiplayer title, previously codenamed "Vanguard," as a premium release.

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios announced the passing of one of its developers, Jim Southworth. He served as the animation lead for the game's cinematics. 

Back in March, Electronic Arts subsidiary Respawn Entertainment opened up a satellite studio in Madison, Wisconsin to bolster development on Apex Legends. As the company noted at the time, its new office wasn't established as a pure support studio—it's a third arm of the game development team behind the company's juggernaut sci-fi Battle Royale.

Sledgehammer Games studio head Aaron Halon claims that working on Modern Warfare III was a "labor of love" after Bloomberg reported the critically panned shooter was made in around 16 months.

Yesterday, Valve revealed an OLED iteration of its Steam Deck handheld. More Steam Deck 1.5 than Steam Deck 2, the new Deck intends to further increase the momentum of the 2022 system, which has been a very strong seller for the Half-Life creator. 

Award-winning game designer Zach Gage wants to reboot the newspaper games page with Puzzmo. But as much as the new platform, which invites players to kick back and peruse a selection of daily puzzles like Really Bad Chess, TypeShift, Flipart, and Cross|word, is a place for games—Gage tells us it's also a place for people.

Unity has told shareholders the controversial Runtime Fee it introduced back in September will only have a "minimal benefit" over the next fiscal year.

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

Sony's planned output of live-service games has hit a stumbling block, as six of those intended 12 titles have been pushed back. During its recent earnings call, president Hiroki Totoki explained the unannounced titles were being delayed due to quality concerns and ensuring they live up to PlayStation's first-party standards. 

Valve has revealed a new OLED version of its Steam Deck. Like with the Nintendo Switch, the new device is an upgraded model to its nearly two-year-old handheld, but with improvements in key areas such as battery life and Wi-Fi. 

On the surface, a RoboCop video game seems like a very straightforward premise—fight bad guys as a cyborg cop and uphold the law in dystopian '80s America. However, most of RoboCop's game appearances didn't quite focus on the social satire and gray morality of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film, instead leaning on a shooter experience.

NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat 1 is nearing the 3 million mark, according to Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav. During the company's newest earnings call, he revealed the fighting game has sold quite well since its mid-September release for the PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Rockstar Games could unveil Grand Theft Auto VI this week, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Free Radical Design, the studio best known for the Timesplitters series, is in danger of closing down a second time. Per VGC, the Nottingham-based developer is at risk due to the current restructuring program of its parent company, Embracer.

Ska Studios struck gold in 2016 with the release of Salt & Sanctuary, an early entry in the "Souls-like" genre that wore its inspirations on its sleeve. The brutal combat and high-stakes cost of death and resurrection meshed nicely with an original ocean-inspired horror art direction that hammers home the fact that the sea is absolutely terrifying.

Game artists: It's time to show your work to the world. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has opened submissions for its third annual arts showcase—promoting an honoring a broad spectrum of art by specific artists in video games.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder sold 4.3 million units within two weeks of launch, according to Nintendo.

Nintendo has started development on a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie that will be produced by Morbius, Spider-Verse, and Uncharted producer Avi Arad.

A second independent games and culture website has been announced today: Second Wind, formed by ex-Escapist employees Nick Calandra and Ben Croshaw. 

The Glory Society, the employee-directed studio formed by Night in the Woods staff, announced it's "suspending operations" and canceling its debut title, Revenant Hill. 

Former employees of Keywords Studios who unionized under the banner of Keywords Edmonton United are planning to strike outside of BioWare's Edmonton headquarters on November 7, beginning around 11AM to 12PM local time. The striking union members—who had previously been working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf before BioWare ended its contract with their employer—are protesting what they describe as an unfair termination by Keywords that they say was motivated by their unionization efforts.

A group of former Koktau writers have reunited to launch new video game website, Aftermath.

The Nintendo Switch has sold 132.46 million units across its entire lifetime, and rising sales during the last quarter have prompted Nintendo to increase its fiscal forecast for the current fiscal year.

Embracer Group COO Egil Strunke has departed the Swedish conglomerate to kickstart his own company.

Unity has changed the language of its Terms of Services that best reflect the recent changes to its controversial Runtime Fee policy. 

Come next Monday, November 13, PlayStation users won't be able to post to X directly from their consoles. 

Days after Bungie's recent round of layoffs, the company hopes Destiny 2's upcoming Final Shape expansion will be a potential savior for the shared-world shooter. 

Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, has called for a boycott of game commerce platform Xsolla over links to Russia.

Nascar Rivals developer Motorsport Games is laying off around 40 percent of its workforce to reduce its year-over-year operating expenses.

Embracer Group has made layoffs at Neverwinter developer Cryptic Studios. Several current and former Cryptic employees confirmed there has been a "reduction in force" at the studio, although it's unclear how many people have been let go.

Annalynn is a retro-themed action game made in the style of the classic arcade. The player controls Annalynn on her quest to grab all the coins in each horizontally scrolling level. Opposing her is the Venom Brigade, a group of four snakes with different personalities who duck and ambush their way through the level using caves and ledges, as Annalynn jumps over her enemies and collects Blinding Rubies, stunning them and allowing her to kick them out of the level.

Sega Sammy's newest financial report shows a decade-best performance across key categories. 

Nintendo wants to help senior citizens in Japan keep gaming into their golden years by sending out Switch hardware and software to retirement homes.

NetEase Games has tapped Riot Games and Blizzard veteran Greg Street to lead a new studio called Fantastic Pixel Castle.

EA says the better-than-expected performance of its various sports franchises, including the recently rebranded EA Sports FC (formerly known as FIFA), is driving net bookings and live service revenue.

According to an announcement from Twitch, the Twitch app on Nintendo Switch will be delisted on January 31, 2024, with support for the app to end Monday, November 6.

Obsidian Entertainment's Grounded is getting user creation tools. Known as "Make It or Break It," the November 13 update will feature a Playgrounds mode that allows players to create their own custom backyards (or use the base game's pre-existing one) and release them to the community. 

Devolver Digital has acquired Astroneer developer System Era Softworks in a deal worth up to $40 million. System Era broke the news in a blog post and described the move as an "amazing milestone" for both itself and Devolver.

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons reportedly told employees at the studio that recent job cuts were the result of waning interest in Destiny 2.

Horror is not just one of the most prolific themes in video games. Its use in an interactive medium is a brilliant opportunity to discuss player psychology, the myth of player agency, how folklore and superstition reflect cultural values and collective fears, and the difficulties of scripting the unexpected. Over the past few decades, many designers and developers working in this genre have shared their methods, techniques and philosophies with us, key lessons which we have condensed and summarized for your convenience. Naturally, the advice here is not comprehensive, or one size fits all. But within these tips, there is some overlap suggesting consensus on some key points that, whatever your approach as a horror game designer, could be a good starting point. Here’s what we learned.

Atari has agreed to acquire development and restoration studio Digital Eclipse for an initial $6.5 million in cash and newly-issued shares. An earn-out of up to $13.5 million tied to the future performance of Digital Eclipse over the next decade means the value of the deal could rise to $20 million.

According to Visceral Games' story producer Chuck Beaver, the audience for single-player horror games was big, but not big enough back in 2013.

Alan Wake Remastered has recouped its development and marketing costs around two years after it launched.

Employees at Bungie have revealed the Destiny 2 studio is cutting staff. Multiple workers have posted on X that they've been let go by the Seattle-based developer, and at time of writing, the exact number of affected employees hasn't been revealed.

Players of the upcoming multiplayer shooter The Finals made an unusual discovery during an open beta for the game over the weekend: that all of the voice lines in the game were produced using generative AI technology.

An Israeli advertising campaign aimed at garnering support for its military offense in Gaza has crept into the world of video games—and it's apparently placing violent imagery in front of children playing them.

After Sunday, November 12, unofficial third-party controllers and devices will no longer be usable on Xbox systems. 

With 2024 getting closer, Ubisoft has unveiled a list of games that'll soon lose online services. Come January 25, 2024, 10 of its older games will no longer have their functioning online modes, such as multiplayer or leaderboards. However, they'll still be playable for those who've previously purchased them. 

For those who want to donate to Palestinian relief efforts, the Games for Gaza bundle has just launched. From now until November 9, players can spend $10 for 256 games and other creative work by 140 designers.

A closer look at Hot Wheels Unleashed™ 2 - Turbocharged Track Builder

Over two years after acquiring ZeniMax and Bethesda, Microsoft has now incorporated some of the developer's management into its own leadership team. Internal emails obtained by The Verge reveal a reorganization that further integrates the two companies and "sustains the momentum" of Microsoft's recent Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Capcom has delivered an uptick in game sales thanks to the launch of Street Fighter 6.

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

Artisan Studios, the French indie developer behind Astria Ascending and Super Neptunia RPG, has opened a new studio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is prepared to accept any criticism that might now come its way.

Neon Machine has secured $20 million in Series A funding to finance production on its upcoming blockchain-based shooter, Shrapnel.

Developer Colossal Order recently addressed the performance issues of its newest release, Cities: Skylines II, and its plan to address them. Ahead of the game's release, it previously said it wouldn't reach its own "benchmark target" of 30 FPS in time and is now giving context to current performance troubles. 

Forbes Hungary reports that animation studio Digic Pictures reduced its staff by 35 employees over the summer. The cuts are said to reflect around 10 percent of the studio's headcount (its LinkedIn currently notes 326 staff) and come as part of a reorganization at the company which took place between June and September. 

It's been over a month since Unity introduced its controversial Runtime Fee policy. Though it was eventually changed after intense backlash from developers across the game industry, a new report from MobileGamer seemingly shows the engine maker's true intentions with the policy. 

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

Dreams and LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule plans to lay off around 20 employees, according to sources speaking to GLHF.

Roblox Corp has laid off a number of employees in China after conducting an "evaluation of the operational structure" of the company.

Sony has seemingly failed to properly credit some of the translators that worked on Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

QA workers at support developer Experis Game Solutions have recently filed to unionize. Per Urban Milwaukee, the group filed for a union election with the NLRB this past Friday (October 20), and are organizing with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 10 (IAMAW).

Connie Booth, current SVP of PlayStation's internal production team, is reportedly no longer working at Sony Interactive Entertainment. News of her departure was revealed by God of War designer David Jaffe, who claimed Booth's 27-year tenure at the developer was over. 

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has sold through over 2.5 million copies within 24 hours to become the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios launch of all time.

Noodle Cat Games, a fledgling studio founded by veterans from Epic Games, EA, and BioWare, has raised $12 million to create a new action RPG.

Developers of a widely-derided King Kong game are shining a spotlight on publisher GameMill Entertainment, claiming the company is infamous for giving contract studios a very short development period.

Add Innersloth to the list of developers that are aiding in relief for Palestinians currently trapped in Gaza. 

Adrian Hon announced he'll be leaving mobile developer Six to Start in early 2024. 

HBO TV series The Last of Us, inspired by the Naughty Dog series of the same name, has done...something to a lot of the game industry executives I've spoken with in 2023. Interest in adapting video game properties has been growing for a few years, with niche titles like Disco Elysium being scooped up and imminent projects like a Fallout TV show about to land, but the Pedro Pascal/Bella Ramsey-helmed series seems to be sparking a shift at the executive level.

Ubisoft has reorganized its North American studios around a single core location: Montreal, Canada. 

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

"This time around, we were dealing with a smaller and much more focused story. Although we were making a spy-thriller story, it was essential for me to bring out colors and emotions that went beyond what you might associate with a story in this genre," explains CD Projekt Red (CDPR) senior composer P.T. Adamczyk, discussing how he began creating the soundscape for Cyberpunk 2077's blockbuster expansion pack, Phantom Liberty.

Cult of the Lamb and Wizard with a Gun publisher Devolver Digital took to X (formerly Twitter) last night to share that it had made a donation to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) providing aid to Palestinian refugees. The publisher shared the UNRWA link and encouraged others to do the same, if they are able. The donation amount was not listed.

Like other 2D Mario games, the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder features online multiplayer. But it also introduces a new feature to the series that would allow solo players to feel like they were interacting with others, which the team dubbed "casual connection." 

Digital Extremes' Warframe is an online action role-playing game that not many other titles can compare to. This isn't just in terms of its approach to the free-to-play model and consistent content updates, but also in its unique visual style built on the uncanny pairing of a bizarre, far-future sci-fi setting with stylized high-fantasy action of 'space ninjas' fighting across the universe.

Indie job board Work With Indies has pledged to donate 100 percent of revenue made during October to organizations providing humanitarian assistance to families in Palestine.

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.