Carlos Pereira’s Post

New Post: Indie developer calls out EA after they surprise release classic titles on Steam - https://lnkd.in/gERpg6uQ - The creator of indie adventure crafting game Potions: A Curious Tale has spoken about the “hurt” caused by EA surprise releasing a number of classic PC titles onto Steam. READ MORE: The best Steam games to play in 2024 Last week, EA released over a dozen of classic PC games on Steam including Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and The Saboteur. It also shared Command and Conquer: The Ultimate Collection, which features pretty much every Command And Conquer game ever released. Unsurprisingly, a number of those titles quickly made their way onto Steam’s New & Trending chart. However, indie developer Stumbling Cat found their newly released adventure crafting game Potions: A Curious Tale bumped down the Steam chart. Creative director Renee Gittens went on to say she’d have “avoided the date like the plague” if she’d known EA were planning on dropping so many titles onto Steam. Sharing an image of the 11 EA titles ahead of Potions: A Curious Tale on Steam’s New & Trending Chart, she wrote: My indie game I worked on for 10 years was immediately bumped off by EA spam releasing 11 titles at once. All of the built-up marketing and momentum squashed in an instant.” To make matters worse, the seven Command & Conquer titles that charted ahead of her, could only be purchased as part of one bundle. After her tweet went viral, Gittins shared a follow-up statement. “The New & Trending list is ordered by release date, not popularity, but you need a base level of good reviews and popularity to get on it and I pushed HARD to get there.” Thank you all so much. pic.twitter.com/ZRnU7jrjiZ — Renee Gittins GDC

A good friend recently posed an intriguing question: "Amir, I perceive that games based on existing cross-media IP have historically been critically inferior, on average, to those created within game studios. Is this still the case in 2023?" Intrigued, I delved into the data to provide a comprehensive answer I compiled a list of 25 renowned game studio-originated IPs and 25 notable cross-media IPs that have been adapted into games. To avoid visual clutter, I'll showcase only a select few from each category that make my point, illustrative of the larger, consistent trend when I included 50 games series In the upper section, depicted are the top game studio-originated IPs arranged by the best-fit plots of their title series. The axes represent the Metacritic score and the year of release for each title within a series. They include: -FromSoftware Souls Games -Forza -Larian CRPGs -The Legend of Zelda -Super Mario Brothers -Halo Below are leading IPs that have transitioned from other media into games: -Spider-Man -Star Wars -Harry Potter -Lord of the Rings For the top group, the best-fit lines for performance reveal an average range, over series lifetime, of 87-95, with a weighted average of 89, considering both average performance and standard deviations within series and across all years For the lower group, the performance range is 54-76, averaging at a higher portion of the range of 72 Extending this analysis across all 25 entries in each category, I found similar averages, albeit slightly narrower The charted short-form data highlights a 17-point gap between the average game series based on native game studio IP versus cross-media IP. This gap shrinks to 15 points upon increasing the sample set to 50 series In conclusion, dear community member, there remains a 15 point quality gap between studio IP and cross-media IP when it comes to video games, on average. Think 90 vs 75 Key Takeaways: -A renowned cross-media IP does not ensure a successful game. In fact, on average, it yields an average game, with some, like the Lord of the Rings, falling below even this standard -Contrarily, notable game studio IPs can almost guarantee a hit, with a near-100% likelihood if a series maintains three consecutive solid entries -Importantly, IP consistency alone does not predict success. However, when combined with a consistent studio, with a history of at least three consecutive solid entries itself, even if all the hits were not within that one series, it's a near certainty. These facts may seem obvious to many but are often overlooked in practice, leading to the failure of games built on the assumption that a beloved movie or book IP will ensure a game’s success This analysis, focused solely on game quality, overlooks revenue. While others might prioritize financials, with my gamer hat on, and not my professional hat, I'm primarily concerned with game quality, which is what I pay for High-res image: https://ibb.co/kBHsxf0

I got my game verified for Steam Deck, without owning a Deck. Here's what I had to do A couple of months ago, Steam made available a tool on Steamworks for developers to submit their games for a certification process, where Steam will test and review the game and decide whether the game is compatible for Steam Deck. Since I already implemented gamepad support for my game, I immediately jumped on it. It took about two months of going back-and-forth with Steam to finally have it verified for full compatibility with Steam Deck. Since I don't see much information out there about this process, I would like to write about my experience, so that other folks don't have to make the same mistakes.Note: I do not own a Deck and nor do I have any access to it at all. My development of the game depended purely on my fan's help and Steam Deck's own easiness.First of all here's a list of what Steam is looking for in a game:https://ift.tt/D19P87J they aren't really looking closely at is whether the game plays well and feels well with the controller. If it's functional and they can easily tell what button does what, they will give it a pass. They don't test every language the game supports - just primarily English. They also don't look at performance too strictly, and battery life isn't a concern either. They do care very much about whether the game is easily legible on a 1280x800 screen, and whether the player has a seamless experience with the controller. Your text must be big enough - the average lower case English alphabet must be at least 9 pixels TALL. This is a big challenge for text heavy games on PC, or games with a complicated user interface. I spent weeks going through every text label in my game, trying to enlarge it, fitting it into the UI area with other existing elements, it was painful. So if you plan to support Steam Deck (which I think is a must for every indie game, since there is no other hand-held platforms that lets people run indie games on besides phones), you should develop the game with the 9-pixel bottom-line in mind. You can just take a screenshot of the game text in your engine/editor with 1:1 scale, magnify the screenshot and count the number of pixels on the Y axis. The game must be able to recognize the device to be Steam Deck and automatically apply the necessary settings such as control scheme (XBOX controller) and resolution (1280x800). In my case, I had to also scale up certain UI windows only if it's on Deck, because on a PC they would look too obnoxiously big. If your game engine has latest Steam API, it's a simple API call to check whether it's running on Deck. But if you don't, then you can check the device name and OS type. When I get home I'll post some more details here.Another painful area is user input boxes. In my game I let the player enter their names during character creation, and Steam requires that as soon as you focus on the text input box (such as by moving a cursor over it and then pressing A butto...

Gifts for the Tabletop Roleplayer Who's Curious About What Else Is Out There Including the unusual, hard-to-find, wholly caller and strangely wonderful, we’ve got a enactment of gifts and games that volition beryllium appreciated by some hardcore tabletop roleplayers and radical who are funny astir TTRPGs but mightiness not cognize wherever to start. Most—if not all—of these products physically came retired this year, which means that they’re little apt to beryllium part of a collection already. What Will VR Solve, Anyway? Packed into this list is simply a premix of indie games, unsocial accessories, amusive books, and gifts for the radical who cognize that their friend/kid/partner likes TTRPGs similar Dungeons & Dragons but mightiness not person immoderate thought what to get them. I’ve got you covered! From precocious extremity creation pieces to zines, cheque retired io9's database of gifts for the tabletop curious. Looking for much acquisition ideas? Check retired each of Gizmodo’s 2023 acquisition guides. Flee, Mortals! Why we similar it: Okay, okay, we get 1 5e supplement! One!! Flee, Mortals! by MCDM games is an awesome bestiary and antagonist generator with other rules for however to woody with groups of enemies that makes combat impactful and casual to run. And the creation successful this publication is incredible. There are a batch of 5e supplements retired determination but I deliberation this 1 is focused, deliberate, and volition amended games of each kinds. Price: $79.99 (Hardcover) $39.99 (PDF) Where to buy: MCDM Productions The RPG Zine Club Why we similar it: Plus One EXP’s newest experimentation is simply a assemblage gathering endeavor packaged with a TTRPG subscription. Gift a subscription and they’ll get 3 gaming zines each month. You tin take betwixt communicative and escapade games, arsenic good arsenic carnal oregon integer lone copies. Support caller designers and grow your collection. Price: Subscriptions from $10-$100/month Where to buy: Plus One EXP City of Winter Why we similar it: Expensive, yes, but gorgeous. City of Winter is a card-driven communicative crippled astir a household journeying to safety. It’s a displacement narrative, a betterment metaphor, and 1 of the astir beautifully produced games I’ve ever played. It’s the benignant of crippled that inspires scenes that you speech astir for months. There’s besides a slim rulebook, and a container for everything to acceptable in. It’s specified a fantastic crippled and uses a ton of prompts that assistance radical determination done the narrative. Just a large game. Price: $25-175, depending connected the mentation Where to buy: Heart of the Deernicorn The Knucklebone Why we similar it: Is the Knucklebone indispensable successful immoderate way? No. It’s cheesy and silly but I emotion it. This small ...

New Trading Card Game List 2024♣♣ Check Here:- https://lnkd.in/duWa5an4 If you want to develop your own trading card game online, you can check the free demo here:- https://lnkd.in/dPDWXS8m #tradingcards #TradingCardGame #cards #onlinecards #onlinecardgame #cardgamedevelopment #cardgameapp #onlinegame #game #development #company #TradingApps #tradinggame

Apparently 'Indie Games' now means "mimicking artisanal flavor, created by some of the largest companies in the world." That is according to some industry peers who have never made indie games. Engadget knows more about what is indie than a bunch of folks in our industry who I thought understood the games business. Below is what Nexon says about Dave the Diver, Nexon's game that is fully funded by a corporation worth $19 billion and developed by permanent fulltime staff of Nexon. People are now saying that $19 billion Nexon makes 'indie' games. Nexon doesn't agree with them. I look forward to game industry folks talking about 'Indie Games' made by Nexon, Tencent, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple, and Google. That's a fine crop of indie companies. I hope that all of you can enjoy the indie efforts from some of the largest companies in the world. Apparently 'indie' now means artisanal games by large corporations. If so we need a new term for what is ACTUALLY Indie. ----- [Interview]: ‘Nexon’s original intention’ contained in Dave the Diver Q. What do you think about Director Jae-ho Hwang's bio? It looks like he will continue to release games with an indie feel. A. [Vice President Kim Dae-hwon] It may look like an indie, but it’s not necessarily so. I do not believe that innovation occurs through hunger, and I hope that bold challenges will be achieved within the large and solid framework of Nexon. The company's goal is to allow developers to focus on their creativity as much as possible in an environment that is more advantageous than time-sensitive indie games. Q. Recently, many game companies are conducting indie incubation projects targeting indie developers or students who show up at indie events. How does Nexon plan to supply and demand manpower? [Vice President Kim Dae-hwon] The priority goal is to find people who are willing to take on new challenges within the company, but the ultimate goal is to have people who want to take on new challenges come to Nexon. Nexon has many talented people with that kind of DNA. I wanted to create a system to support such people at the company level. I dream of collaborating with and developing with capable external developers. GameToc (Korean): https://lnkd.in/gYJV5rcb ----- Engdaget: "The Game Awards raises an old question: What does indie mean? Here are 1,729 words in search of an answer." "The Game Awards got it wrong this year. One of the titles nominated for Best Independent Game, Dave the Diver, was produced by Nexon, one of the largest video game studios in South Korea. No matter how hard you squint, it is not indie. Dave the Diver is an excellent pixel-art game about deep-sea fishing and restaurant management, but it was commissioned and bankrolled by Nexon subsidiary Mintrocket, with billions of dollars and decades of experience at its back." Engadget: https://lnkd.in/gw92j6UQ #gameindustry #vidoegames #gamedev #indiegames #fakeindie #touristing #davethediver #nexon #mintrocket #tga

I’ve always had some paranoia whilst enjoying digitally downloaded games, always some irrational fear that if I forget my log-in it will be all lost, or perhaps the service that holds the key goes bust I lose my collection. In a time when many people are losing their jobs, it feels like even more of a fear to me for their legacy to be lost too. I’ve always been able to rationalise cutting projects before release, even if they were a few days from being ready but, I struggle when a completed project is taken down for other reasons. I’m not ignorant of how licensing works but it's something that has always bugged me, people’s vision, blood, sweat and tears being poured into something, masses enjoying it and then not allowing history to remember it. If you’re wondering where this post has come from, 2012’s “Spec Ops: The Line” will no longer be published on online stores. https://lnkd.in/eBUWxNF9 A phenomenal game that I often recommend to anyone interested in shining a mirror on the player’s actions and thoughts. Spec Ops: The Line intentionally plays on its dissonant tones of looking and feeling like your generic military shooter whilst standing in opposition to ‘playing war’. Inspired by the book Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now, again, I always loved how it utilised the player's actions and weaponised them against the player to get them to think about what they have been doing. “The feelings that we want you to feel, are directly about you as the gamer choosing to sit down and play this game…What does playing this game say about us, about the games we choose to play” – Walt Williams, Lead Writer of Spec Ops: The Line. As of right now with all that is going on in the world, it feels like a real loss having something that questions 'how should games depict war' to be removed and almost erased. A crushing blow for games preservation. I hope that if anyone reading this missed out on buying it whilst it was around, there are lots of video essays and conversations on it on Youtube.

This is the actual creator economy. Game makers and modders in videogames. The creator economy in games goes back in the late 1970s. It predates the internet by more than a decade. The creator economy has never needed the web. The creator economy started in magazines and pre-internet bulletin boards, newsgroups, mailing lists. The creator economy will flow to whatever means of communication exist, but it doesn't need web or 'web3'. The creator economy was here 3 decades before crypto, and will exist after all that is dead and gone. Videogame modders, level designers, amateurs, professionals, bedroom coders, builders, are the creator economy. And the only thing that came before them in the history of creator economy? Wargamers and tabletop RPGs folks in the 1970s. Wargamers that became RPGamers actually kind of started the modern notion of creator economy. They did it to organically build and support the spread of the core notion of RPGs that started with D&D (first in Blackmoor) and spread to an explosion of RPGs in the 1980s. All of that was creator economy: WarGamers to RPGamers to VideoGamers, all as makers and modders. ----- Eurogamer: "Nexus Mods hits 10bn downloads today" "In Nexus Mods' words: "A beast of monstrous proportions is approaching." Today, the mod distribution site - home to some of the best community made video game additions (looking at you Shrek and Thomas) - will hit 10bn downloads. To put that milestone into some perspective, "if every download were a footstep, you could walk to the moon 11 times, or walk The Seven Thousand Steps to High Hrothgar 4,161,464 times," Nexus Mods said. Meanwhile, if you are more like me and find it easier to envision things with pizza slices, if Nexus Mods celebrated each download with a slice of thick crust Margherita with extra cheese, "this pizza would cover 15 times the size of Manhattan Island". These are facts you simply knead to know to appreciate how monumental this milestone really is. Celebrating today, the site said these 10bn downloads are "spread across 539,682 mod files, created by a vibrant community of 128,361 mod authors". All of these mods are "serving over 47 million total members", with 2683 different games being modded. Meanwhile, the site sees roughly 10m downloads per day. Phew! "We want to say a big thanks for continuing to support the site. Through this, we can give back to the creators, the curious-minded, whacky and inventive modders who continue to discover new territory in game development and keep pushing the boundaries of creativity," Nexus Mods said. As well as sharing this impressive download figure, the Nexus Mods team also laid out some plans for the future. This includes its Nexus Mods App and ongoing site development. It also hopes to one day provide free premium membership to any mod author who hits a certain number of unique downloads as well." EuroGamer: https://lnkd.in/g_VACNMv #gameindustry #creatoreconomy #videogames #modders #rpgs #makers

I’m late to the party, but I think Helldivers 2 is a masterclass in live service design. Arrowhead has deservedly been showered with praise from players from various perspectives. Many have also spoken about the game’s monetization, as it's somewhat rare to see players connecting this well with a premium game monetized through progression boosters and skins. However, I don’t think the monetization is even that interesting in the context of the game’s live service design. What’s noteworthy is how the live service is conceptually integral to the game’s progression (both solo and collective), how it enforces a sense of community, and how it is made not only thematically appropriate–but necessary. Helldivers 2 works perfectly as a simple Starship Troopers pastiche, but the humour and tone add to the sense that players are participating in a Totally Serious™ and developing galactic war. The game is actually “live”, and players can see collective action moving the needle as they spread democracy to hostile planets and new planets open up to be liberated from the bug and bot menace. The story is ongoing, and daily play contributes tangibly to the long-term campaign that feels like an army being actively directed. While Helldivers 2 effectively has similar seasons as other games, they are not this layer separate from the game itself. Even the monetized core progression in its Warbonds is a fun diegetic design element in the game, as players are cheekily called to contribute financially to the jingoistic war machine. Be it through purchases or currency gained through the basic progression systems. While Warbonds could easily be reduced to being battle passes, they are adequately justified and made a proper part of the game’s universe. Not to mention that players seem to deem the progression as satisfying, fair, and respectful of their time without adding undue FOMO. How well the live service is connected to the theme and the metagame is far beyond most games. It creates this feeling of a community better than even most modern MMOs. While I’ve never touched the original Helldivers, it also had a similar community-wide galactic war progression system. In the sequel, Arrowhead has just taken it to the point where it feels the game couldn’t exist without its live elements. From the player’s perspective, very few titles have any semblance of diegetic live service design. So, it's no surprise that players often feel service elements and associated monetization systems encroaching on their experience, even without pay-to-win. In-universe justifications and a feeling of collective progression as part of the service seem to have made all the difference. Helldivers 2 is tangibly better because it is a live service, and I hope studios take note.

The New York Times’ Word Search Game "Strands" Added to Games App The New York Times' popular word search game, Strands, is now officially available in the NYT’s Games app on both iOS and Android. Strands is a word search puzzle with a thematic twist. Each puzzle has a specific theme, guiding players to find related words, including the unique "spangram" word that spans across the puzzle. Every letter in the puzzle contributes to a themed word or the spangram. For those who need assistance, hints are available by locating three non-themed words on the board. According to The New York Times, Strands is the third most-searched game, following Wordle and Connections, and is almost as popular as Spelling Bee. Most players are successfully completing their puzzles, with 83% finding the spangram daily and a completion rate of around 81%, comparable to the Mini Crossword and Tiles. Strands will be integrated into the Game tab in the main NYT app later this year. Not all of The New York Times’ games achieve the same level of success as Wordle, Connections, or Strands. For example, Digits, a math-based puzzle game, was available in beta for a short period before being discontinued, despite its clever concept.