Game Developer Digest 12/14/2022
Happy Wednesday, Digest readers, and welcome to today's edition. We have a pair of strong features today, one interviewing Private Division leadership on its partnership with Bloober Team and the company's new indie fund, and another on the birth of Ultima Underworld (and, consequently, the "immersive sim" genre)—the part about Madden '93 being integral to the fledgling studio's success and ability to finish UU is especially wild! We've also got plenty of news morsels for you, including Epic's policy on AI art on Artstation, Tim Schafer talking Psychonauts series development nightmares, and more.
Ultima Underworld creative director Paul Neurath returns 30 years later to talk about the progenitor of the "immersive sim" genre.
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.
As AI art becomes more prevalent in online communities, Epic is trying to be more proactive in how it's used on Artstation.
For Double Fine, making both of the Psychonauts games came with their own respective obstacles.
Someone had to get an acquisition in before the new year.