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Disney+ is preparing a 'The Mandalorian' behind-the-scenes series
If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the second season of The Mandalorian, which arrives this fall, you may be happy to learn that Disney+ is working on a new behind-the-scenes docuseries about the show. The eight-episode series, Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, will include interviews with cast and crew, never-before-seen footage and roundtable conversations hosted by The Mandalorian’s executive producer Jon Favreau. The series premieres on May 4th, Star Wars Day, and new episodes will be available every Friday -- Disney+ will also drop the last chapter in The Clone Wars series on May 4th.
The NFL's new TikTok account is all about highlights and sideline moments
The National Football League is hyping up its 100th season with a TikTok partnership. Today, the NFL is launching an official TikTok account with packaged highlights, sideline moments and behind-the-scenes footage. To get things started, it's promoting a #WeReady challenge. Today through September 5th, the NFL is asking fans to share videos about their favorite teams with the hashtag.
Sony releases its 'God of War' making-of documentary on YouTube
God of War was one of the biggest games of last year. It was among the top ten best-selling titles of 2018 and it scooped up numerous plaudits, including the top prize at the Game Awards and a coveted spot among Engadget's favorite games of the year. Bringing the game to life took an immense effort, and it took Sony's Santa Monica Studio a long time to revamp the action-adventure series for PS4.
World of Warcraft gives behind-the-scenes tour of animated series
Blizzard has been paving the way for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor with its recent animated miniseries, Lords of War. If you found that series particularly, erm, enThralling, then the devs have a treat for you. The team posted two behind-the-scenes videos talking about the story and art of the series, respectively, which you can watch after the jump!
A Behind the Scenes look at Lords of War with Senior Illustrator Laurel Austin
Earlier this month, Blizzard released a behind the scenes look at Lords of War, the latest short series from the team that brought us The Burdens of Shaohao. Although that behind the scenes glimpse was pretty good, it focused mainly on the story of the short films, the ideas behind the process. Yesterday, another Behind the Scenes featurette was added -- this time, featuring Senior Illustrator Laurel Austin, the artist behind all of those gorgeous moving frames. Austin goes through the process of character design for the shorts and the challenges of bringing the various warlords to life. This is frankly the kind of behind the scenes stuff I really like to see -- don't get me wrong, I love a story as much as the next person, but I like seeing how it's all put together from a technical standpoint. While the exact process of animating the still paintings is only brushed on, it's still incredibly cool to watch Austin work and explain why particular stylistic choices were put into play. I didn't expect a second installment to this series, so I'm almost hoping we might yet see a third installment that goes into the animation process itself and how all those stunning paintings are brought to life. Either way, the video is a fascinating watch for anyone who wants to see how Blizzard puts their art together. If you somehow missed Lords of War when it originally aired, you can catch the entire series on World of Warcraft's Youtube channel -- they've even put together a helpful playlist of all the episodes in order.
Behind-the-scenes video basks in Geometry Wars 3's glow
We don't envy Lucid Games – the studio has a passionate fanbase to appease when it launches Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions this fall on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC. Fortunately, Lucid houses senior developers from now-defunct series creator Bizarre Creations, and it's clear that the team has some ideas on how to progress from 2008's GW2: Retro Evolved. In a behind-the-scenes feature posted after the break, Lucid Co-Founder Nick Davies and Creative Director Craig Howard describe what they have in mind for Dimensions, including boss battles, 3D battlegrounds and head-to-head multiplayer. Check the video to get a glimpse of those elements in action and to get reacquainted with your neon-hued geometric rivals! [Image: Sierra]
Discover wraith relationships, as portrayed by Shadow of Mordor
Talion may be the poster child advertising Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, but he's not the only one seeking vengeance against the Dark Lord Sauron and his army of nasty creatures. In this behind-the-scenes video, meet Celebrimbor: an elven smith who helped create the Rings of Power and has since been cursed to exist as a wraith in eternal un-death. Yeesh, no wonder he seems like a bit of a grumpy-pants. Celebrimbor is played by Alastair Duncan, opposite Troy Baker as Talion. The two characters may have the same agenda, but they don't always agree about how to do it. To learn more about their ripe-for-sitcom-adaptation relationship - seriously, we can hear it in our heads already: "Taliooooooon!" *cue laugh track* - check out the new behind-the-scenes video above. [Image: Warner Bros. Interactive]
Gollum debuts in Shadow of Mordor behind the scenes clip
While Red Dead Redemption writer Christian Cantamessa and BioShock Infinite voice actor Troy Baker discuss how Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is both an original tale and faithful to J.R.R. Tolkien's immense canon, a familiar, gangly, wide-eyed figure peers into the camera like a paranoid bushbaby. [Image: WBIE]
Roberts' latest post peeks behind the Star Citizen development curtain
Star Citizen has opened another window on the world of game development, this time courtesy of a Chris Roberts post that details the investigative process behind Arena Commander's lag and rubber-banding issues. In a nutshell, the problems surfaced with patch 12.4 as Cloud Imperium expanded the pool of AC participants past the initial 60,000-player threshold. "Like doctors trying to identify a mysterious illness, we looked for common environmental factors," Roberts writes. "Was there a significant geographic distance between players? Surprisingly, no: in many cases, players with almost no latency between them were still having issues. The team moved on to examining our own code." He goes on to explain how CIG translates potential problems into JIRA tasks and assigns them to engineers who are responsible for repairs prior to the next patch. [Thanks Cardboard!]
TUG team releases behind-the-scenes video for Playtest Fridays
Ahh, making video games. It's all about just playing games all day, right? Well, actually, for Nerd Kingdom, that is true for Playtest Fridays. A brand-new video was released by the TUG developer today showing off a bit of light-hearted behind-the-scenes fun during the sandbox MMO's development. The indie dev team dedicates every Friday to playtesting the game to squash bugs and focus on player feedback. The video shows a glimpse inside the studio during meetings, play sessions, and more. So if you're into secret whiteboard scratchings and hidden codes on colored sticky notes, check out the video after the cut in slow-mo. [Source: Kickstarter]
RuneScape shows you the making of an epic quest
RuneScape puts more thought than most MMOs do into the creation and execution of its quests, so when the devs want to share how they make one of these, it might behoove you to show some respect. No, you don't need to kneel. Maybe give it a solemn nod or something. In a new video -- one that you, yes you, can watch after the break -- Jagex takes its playerbase on a tour of the making of "The Mighty Fall" quest. Get a feel for where this quest fits into the greater storyline as well as see how an entire team works together to fashion such a mission. We don't think you'll be disappointed.
WildStar raid dev: 'Our raids are the best blend of challenging and fun'
Do you wonder what it takes to make the toughest PvE content in an MMO? Then you'll want to virtually meet WildStar Dungeon and Raid Lead Designer Brett Scheinert, who stars in a new "A Moment in the Life" video talking about his job. "The biggest thing to be excited about with our raids is that they're the best blend I've seen between being challenging and fun," Scheinert claims. He goes on in the video to talk about his past experience in the industry and how he thinks it's really cool to see his ideas become reality. The video is a three-minute interview with several glimpses into WildStar's raids, although we suspect that Scheinert was using GM codes to solo them. You can give it a watch after the jump.
Behind-the-scenes 'Final Hours of Titanfall' app now available
The Final Hours of Titanfall, an in-depth look at the development of Respawn Entertainment's first game, is now available to download on iPad, Windows Surface as well as PC and Mac via Origin for $1.99. Versions of the app are also planned for Android and iPhone, and both a text-only version for Kindle as well as an audiobook version are being considered. Created over a four-year span by Geoff Keighley, the app is a 25,000-word deep-dive on Titanfall's development and the legal issues that Respawn co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella settled with Activision in May 2012 pryor to West's departure from the developer in March 2013. Keighley conducted interviews with over 80 people to chronicle Respawn's beginnings, which cover the "toxic mix of office politics and creative struggles the build the next great videogame franchise." It also features concept art and videos from the early days of the game's development. This isn't Keighley's first foray into longform app development, as the behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series includes an episodic webseries on Square Enix's Tomb Raider reboot, an app for Portal 2 and one detailing the creation of Mass Effect 3. [Image: EA Games]
Pirate101 explains the making of its combat system
If you're the type of player that likes to know how the sausage is made, then strap on a peg leg and wobble over to a pair of dev diaries explaining the making of Pirate101's combat system! "One of the systems that reviewers feel stands out the most in Pirate101 is the combat. Combat in Pirate101 has been described as 'deceptively simple' and 'really fun,' but it took years of iteration and changes to finally arrive at the experience that players have today," the devs wrote. The diaries go through the early prototype of the system, how the team figured out combat sequencing, and the difficulties of getting the camera placement just right. The devs said that once the basic system was in place, adding the extra elements such as reflex talents and bullet time was a blast to do.
Zoo Tycoon chooses first Community Challenge, Microsoft to donate $10,000 to tiger conservation
Sumatran tigers will be the first species to benefit from a partnership between Microsoft and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), wherein Microsoft donates $10,000 to a wildlife-oriented charity every time players of Zoo Tycoon complete a chosen Community Challenge. Developer Frontier also released the above dev diary detailing the studio's collaboration with the AZA, including how the studio studied real-life zoos to reproduce realistic animals, behavior and habitats in-game. Frontier also translated what they learned from the real world into the game's Zoopedia, a collection of facts about the animals players take care of. The more you know! [Image: Microsoft]
The Last of Us adds new difficulty level in upcoming DLC
The final DLC for The Last of Us' Season Pass will contain a new difficulty mode for the game's single-player mode, as well as new maps, weapons and skills for the game's multiplayer component. Naughty Dog only described the upcoming difficulty mode as "new," not necessarily harder. So who knows, maybe it's Lollipop Difficulty, where the infected have been replaced by fluffy teddy bears and sadness is replaced with rainbows. Naughty Dog wrote that they will provide more information "as in-game elements near completion." Naughty Dog also released a new behind-the-scenes video detailing their journey creating Left Behind, the single-player DLC follow-up for a game with roughly a bajillion awards. We've included it after the break since, like the game's Clicker enemies, spoilers can rip your throat out make you have a very bad day if you get too careless. [Image: Sony]
Behind-the-scenes video teaches us where baby Titanfalls come from
A new behind-the-scenes video from developer Respawn Entertainment is all about the birds and the bees. And by "birds" and "bees," we mean giant robots and jetpacks, and how they come together to form Titanfall. The video chronicles the journey of Titanfall, from baby brainchild to the massive hype train it is today. There's also some insight into the development of Respawn itself, including a look at how comfy their floors must be - one snapshot from the studio's early days shows a team member lounging about on the carpet, head resting on their arms. They grow up so fast. [Image: Respawn Entertainment]
Count the amazings in this Lightning Returns dev diary
Ali Hillis, the voice of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII heroine Lightning, narrates this 30-minute developer diary on Square Enix and the team behind the conclusion of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. Everything is discussed, from how Square Enix came up with Lightning Returns' premise down to how the developer managed to cram more ladders into the game. Yep. Director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase wax poetic about the collaborative creation process at Square Enix, but we quite like the segments provided by the sound engineers, environmental artists and programmers who one day dreamed of working at Square Enix – and made those dreams come true. It's heart-warming stuff. This behind-the-scenes featurette covers way more than we could relay in a single post, so grab a beverage and a snack, settle in and hit the play button above. Also, see if you can keep track of how many times the word "amazing" is used – we lost count. [Image: Square Enix]
Need For Speed movie has cars, cameras, cameras on cars
Ever wonder what it takes to get a camera up to speed with the race car speed demons you see in films like The Fast & The Furious and the upcoming Need For Speed? This behind-the-scenes video should give you a clue as to the amount of work involved. The crew in the video start by introducing us to a Ford Mustang GT before ripping its guts out and replacing them with better, stronger, faster parts. Turns out, when you're filming fast cars, you need another fast car to keep up. Who knew? [Image: DreamWorks]
WildStar's Stephan Frost on creating content and keeping within deadlines
Developing an MMO is not an easy process. We know that intellectually, but most of us have not actually built a game ourselves, so we don't know exactly how or why it's not difficult. Design producer Stephan Frost recently penned an article taking a look at the process of design in WildStar, highlighting both common elements to MMO production and some of the ways that Carbine Studios does things a little bit differently. Frost explains that the key to producing an MMO is understanding that it's really more like producing several different games layered on top of one another. He goes on to explain how all content is designed according to a master roadmap, allowing space for individual designers to put their distinct touches on things while still working within an overall vision. If this sort of thing interests you, by all means, take a look at the full article for a deeper look at how these games come to life.
