game development
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Amazon ditches policy claiming ownership of employees’ personal games
The 'draconian' rules about personal games had been in place for over a decade.
Opera now has a game engine to go with its gamer-focused browser
It’s not often that a browser company acquires a game development platform. The latter is a hugely popular platform for novice game developers with little programming experience. It works well with 2D projects and has an approachable drag-and-drop interface, along with its own scripting language that can be used to build more advanced titles.
‘Apex Legends’ developers’ new studio embraces remote work
Gravity Well will foster an anti-crunch culture, according to its founders.
‘Dreams’ turns the PS4 into a charming game development kit
Dreams is finally here. The latest game by Media Molecule, the delightfully whimsical studio behind LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway, was first teased at the PlayStation 4 reveal event in February 2013. A Creator Early Access was released on Tuesday (April 16th), mere hours before Mark Cerny, a systems architect at Sony, revealed the first details about the PlayStation 5. Dreams, then, was dangerously close to missing an entire console generation.
'Anthem' is proof that crunch can't save AAA games
Anthem is a fiery mess. Since launching in February, BioWare's loot shooter has been plagued by game-breaking bugs, narrative and gameplay inconsistencies and an overwhelming sense of incomplete blandness. Critically, Anthem has received middling reviews, and its current Metacritic score, 55, is the lowest a BioWare title has ever received. Yes, that includes Mass Effect: Andromeda. A report out of Kotaku this week helps explain why Anthem is in disarray, and it shines a light on a consistent and increasingly public issue in AAA development: crunch.
Epic Games wants architects to make Unreal Engine more lifelike
While gaming graphics keep getting more realistic, they're still a far cry from what architects can do. That's why Unreal Engine maker Epic Games and architectural site Ronen Bekerman are marrying the two in a new competition. For the 2015 Vineyard Challenge, competitors will "interpret a modern winery setting" (of all things) in Unreal Engine 4, where they'll be judged on categories like lighting, design and interactivity. Winners will draw from "the largest cash prize in architectural visualization contest history," with a $25,000 grand prize for the group winner and a $12,500 individual award.
Camelot Unchained's Mark Jacobs on the warrior class and development transparency
City State Entertainment -- an indie studio that's becoming better known to our readers, I imagine, after it ran away with our poll for best studio last week -- has today posted its first class concept reveal. The tentatively named Drengr is the Viking warrior class, and in its long design document, the studio has outlined just how the archetype fits into the proposed Path system that will govern character development in the crowdfunded RvR MMORPG. We spoke to CSE's Mark Jacobs about the Path system, warrior reveal, and the impact of transparency on the game development process. Enjoy the interview below!
Massively interviews EVE executive producer Andie Nordgren
If you've been following the development of EVE Online lately, chances are you've heard of Andie 'CCP Seagull' Nordgren and her mission to make deep space colonisation and player-built stargates a reality. Andie has spearheaded the direction of EVE's development over the past few expansions and has gathered a considerable following in the EVE community. At EVE Fanfest 2014, we heard her plans to overhaul EVE's outdated sovereignty and corporation management systems, and to eventually introduce new deep space colonisation gameplay. Today CCP announced that Andie Nordgren has been promoted to the position of Executive Producer on EVE Online. I caught up with her for a chat about development on EVE and to find out what this promotion means for the future the game. I've pulled together the important details from the interview in this article, and if you still have burning questions for Andie Nordgren, she's doing an AMA thread on Reddit right now!
Blizzard should rethink their content release model
Blizzard changes many things for each new expansion: raid structures, class spells and talents, game systems, UI elements -- few aspects of WoW survive an X.0 patch untouched. It's time for Blizzard to change the one thing that has stayed the same since The Burning Crusade: the "event patch" release cycle. In WoW today, every patch is a big deal. We get previews. We get a trailer. We get fancy artwork with the X.X numbers. The patch release is an event. Every patch has tons of content for nearly every aspect of the game. It's exciting -- there's almost too much to do. When a new patch releases, we're in WoW heaven. Then months go by and that content grows stale. Blizzard doesn't give us new content at that point, but peeks at future content. We're starving for a delicious content meal, but we can only look at pictures of the food. It's a feast and famine cycle that has to end. It creates this massive gap between the final content patch of one expansion and the release of the next. We must cross it once again in 2014. Players put up with it because we know Blizzard will deliver, eventually, a tremendously fun experience. But should we have to endure this, still, after the game has been around for almost ten years? It's time for Blizzard to rethink the way they release content.
GDC 2014: Ubisoft shows off its Divison-powering Snowdrop engine
Ubisoft Massive showed off a three-minute trailer focused on its Snowdrop game engine at this week's GDC event in San Francisco. The first title powered by the new tech is UM's MMO shooter The Division, which also features heavily in the clip's behind-the-scenes footage. "Working with the engine is kind of like solving a puzzle," explains environment artist Jill Jarlestam. "The elements are already there so it's just a matter of how you combine them together." You can watch the full video by clicking past the cut.
EVE Evolved: What to expect from EVE Fanfest 2014
Almost 10 years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games started a new tradition with the first ever annual EVE Fanfest. The event started out as a largely informal gathering in a tiny venue that allowed players and developers to mingle on a more personal level, but it's now grown into something massive. Over a thousand players now make the annual pilgrimage to EVE Online's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland, to hear what the future holds for their favourite MMO. For many, the event is also a social gathering, a chance to swap stories with other players, and a rare opportunity to meet the corpmates they fly with every day in the virtual galaxy of New Eden. The Fanfest weekend is typically a packed schedule of panels, talks, roundtable discussions with developers, and keynote speeches revealing the future of the game. While the event is understandably focused on EVE Online, it's recently expanded to cover aspects of DUST 514, the latest goings-on with World of Darkness, and even CCP's new virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. CCP has announced that this year's event will see a monument to the EVE playerbase unveiled in Reykjavik Harbor as well as the first reveal of EVE's summer expansion, but what else can we hope to glean from this year's event at the start of May? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I delve into the EVE Fanfest announcement and speculate on what we might expect to hear from this year's event. Will this be the year that World of Darkness gets some serious news? And what's new for DUST 514?
GameMaker: Studio free to download, Professional edition discounted
Curious about game development? YoYo Games is offering free licenses for GameMaker: Studio, development software that caters to users who don't know the depths of programming. Until March 2, licenses for the Standard edition can also be upgraded to the Professional version for $35. Never heard of GameMaker? Derek Yu used it to develop the punishing labyrinth of Spelunky, while Risk of Rain developer Hopoo Games used it to build giant pig-infested stages. Messhof also used GameMaker for its multiplayer stab-fest, Nidhogg. If you're interested, download the Standard version and play around with it. If you decide it's not for you, the only thing it will really cost you is time. [Image: YoYo Games]
Gloria Victis rebuilds animations and database as alpha approaches
Updates on Gloria Victis have been sparse recently, but according to the development team, that's because a lot of behind-the-scenes work has been getting done. The team has just finished polishing off two major projects, starting with a complete rework of the game's database structure to allow for easier updates and improvements. The downside is that it doesn't make much difference in play; the upside is that it will allow the team to easily change and update the game with less futzing about. Black Eye Games has also reworked the animations for combat as well as the mechanics, and different sorts of weapon will now interact with armor in a more realistic fashion. The team is working on a video to show off the improvements, though it's not quite ready yet. It's a bit of an invisible update, but it means that development is still continuing, and when the game finally launches into alpha testing it should be that much more engaging. [Source: Black Eye Games press release]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen to livestream game development tonight, reveals the Ogre
If you've ever wanted to get an insider's look at MMO development, Visionary Realms is offering that chance. The studio will stream sessions of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's development from the desktop of Senior Artist Vu Nguyen live on Twitch while various team members offer commentary and answer audience questions from chat. The first show airs on the Rob and Dan Show tonight, January 27th, at 7:00 p.m. EST. Additionally, Chief Creative Officer Brad McQuaid will host a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything at 4:00 p.m. EST Wednesday, January 29th. "We've said from day one that we want the community involved every step of the way, and this is a chance to prove that we're committed to that," noted Director of Development Salim Grant. The team has also just revealed the Ogre. [Source: Visionary Realms press release]
EVE Evolved: Has colonisation been forgotten?
At last year's EVE Online Fanfest, CCP revealed its ambitious plan to take the game where no sandbox MMO has ever gone before: full deep space colonisation. The plan will be delivered over the next five years and will end with the incredibly exciting vision of players building their own stargates and colonising brand-new solar systems that lie off the grid. Rubicon was intended as the first step toward this glorious plan, and its new focus on deployable sandbox structures certainly seemed to be introducing a more player-directed form of colonisation. I've been cautiously optimistic about the whole endeavour so far, but five years is hell of a long time to wait for that vision to come to fruition. Rubicon's Mobile Depot structure was a great first step toward player-run empires on all scales, but none of the recently announced Rubicon 1.1 deployables has continued along the same theme of colonisation and exploration. The Mobile Micro Jump Drive and Mobile Scan Inhibitor structures I looked at last week provide extra tactical options in PvP, and the three new structures revealed this week are all designed to steal money and resources from nullsec corporations. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether the newly revealed Encounter Surveillance System and alternate Siphon Units are a step in the wrong direction. With games like Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous on the way, CCP may not have five years to deliver the promise of colonisation.
On developer interaction and behind-the-scenes info
There's an interesting thread going on right now on the official forums, concerning the possibility of an ongoing series of interviews or video content exploring the behind-the-scenes at Blizzard. CM Zarhym chimed in with a mention of the A Day in the Life series that was released during Blizzard's 20 year anniversary celebration. But more importantly, he noted that it takes a lot of resources to put that kind of feature together, which is why Blizzard tries to pair things like interviews and behind-the-scenes info with big announcements. And that's completely understandable. It takes time, effort and resources to put together a feature -- time and resources that could be spent on better things, like improving and working on that game we love to play. But after many other inquires and suggestions on the subject, Zarhym shared another, longer post that made everything just a little more clear -- and raised some good points about developer interaction in general.
Unity engine comes to Vita with full feature set in tow
In its ongoing quest to support every gaming platform in existence, the Unity engine is now available to developers on Sony's Vita handheld. According to a blog post on the Unity website, the Vita version of Unity supports all of the handheld's unique features including touchscreen sensitivity, dual analog joysticks, the Vita's front- and rear-facing cameras and its gyroscopic motion sensors. In addition, the engine also supports the features of the PlayStation Network, allowing developers to easily integrate trophies and friends list support into games developed on Unity. Most crucially, the addition of Unity support to the Vita will make it easier to port games from the handheld to other platforms supported by the engine. Instead of having to rewrite a game's code from scratch, developers can now build a game in Unity and with a few relatively simple tweaks port it to other Unity platforms. In March, an agreement was announced to bring the Unity engine to all Sony gaming machines. This should make development of future cross-play games less resource-intensive.
EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1
When I'm not playing or writing about EVE Online, I can usually be found huddled over my computer typing lines of code into a compiler and chipping away at bugs that make varying degrees of sense. Designing my own hardcore space game is a really fun challenge and very fulfilling work, but I have a dirty little game dev secret: I've actually always wanted to make a fantasy game. While the budget and personnel required to take on a project the scale of an MMO remain quite far outside my grasp for the moment, it's still fun to think about how I might design such a game if the opportunity arose. The MMO genre seems to be heading for a sandbox revolution this year, and there's no bigger sandbox than EVE Online, but could all of EVE's gameplay translate to a fantasy game? EVE is probably the most atypical MMO out there, maintaining a subscription-based single-shard PvP sandbox in a genre that's typically headed in the exact opposite direction. There are several new sci-fi sandboxes on the way that may or may not qualify as massively multiplayer titles, but the vast majority of MMO gamers still prefer to keep their feet on the ground in fantasy lands. I often find myself wondering how much of EVE Online's core gameplay is possible only because of its setting -- and how much could actually be applied to a fantasy MMO. Not only should it be possible to adapt most of what makes EVE great to a modern land-based game, but many of the mechanics sandbox gamers now attribute almost solely to EVE actually started life in classic fantasy MMOs like Ultima Online. In this week's unusual EVE Evolved, I'd like to start a game design thought experiment as I delve into the hypothetical world of EVE Onland.
TUG begins building networking and third-person models
TUG is a game with big goals and a small start, but that's just more stuff for it to work up to over time. The latest update for the game's backers shows how far the game has already come even in its early stage, though, with the game already beginning to build upon and improve its overall infrastructure. The latest update highlights that third-person models are now partly in place, with first-person animations and some third-person animations working correctly. The game's networking is also in place, but at the moment it's only a bare-bones implementation; players can host servers but no central server architecture yet exists. The update warns that it's also largely untested, since that is part of what the testing environment exists to facilitate. There's also new biomes, new crafting, and physics -- a far cry from the initial exploration demo. It's still small, but every update makes the game just a little bigger.
Perfect Ten: What making games taught me about MMO development
Since 1998, I've created and run countless games in my role as a youth minister. Despite the accusations from some corners that games waste time, I've been a firm believer that they're one of the most universal bonding experiences and can be used for a purpose. I've also learned a lot of lessons while coming up with my own or adapting others' games. You can have the perfect game on paper, but throwing it to the "test server" of a group of insane teens can show you just how wrong you are. It's through games that I've tied together my hobby and professional life, and it's definitely opened my eyes to some of the complex issues that developers deal with on a daily basis. So you know how they say that you have to walk a mile in another's shoes to understand where he's coming from? Well, I've done this with games. Here are 10 lessons that running games taught me about developing and operating these complex MMOs we love.
