News

How a server explosion gave the original Guild Wars a new lease on life
How a server explosion gave the original Guild Wars a new lease on life
"I was just getting ready to dig into moving one service at a time into AWS when the data center Uninterruptible Power Supply failed to live up to its name and blew up."
June 1, 2018
Ex-Microsoft exec J Allard speaks to the game industry's inherent burnout problem
Ex-Microsoft exec J Allard speaks to the game industry's inherent burnout problem
"Staff will often sacrifice much more than should be required of them," ex-Xbox exec J Allard told Gamasutra. "If the work/life balance isn’t healthy, they will naturally grow to resent the dynamic."
June 1, 2018
Bungie nets $100M+ from China's NetEase, aims to create 'new worlds'
Bungie nets $100M+ from China's NetEase, aims to create 'new worlds'
This is a big deal because it seems likely to fundamentally shift the way Bungie makes and operates games, both at home and abroad, as the studio aims to use the funds to spin up multiple dev teams.
June 1, 2018
Get a job: Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore is hiring a Technical Animator
Get a job: Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore is hiring a Technical Animator
Wargaming is looking for someone to integrate character motions and procedural effects to create responsive, compelling, and attractive player- and AI-controlled character movement in a new title.
June 1, 2018
The story behind Remedy's viral dog mocap star
The story behind Remedy's viral dog mocap star
Some folks from Max Payne dev Remedy write about how they began experimenting with mocapping a studio dog, what they learned about putting pups in mocap suits, and how they might use the results.
June 1, 2018
Video: Refining the game systems of Diablo III
Video: Refining the game systems of Diablo III
At GDC 2013 Blizzard's Wyatt Cheng described different game systems that were attempted, explored, and then ultimately removed from the original release of Diablo III.
June 1, 2018
Analyst: 77% of the 4.5M apps on iOS are games, down from past years
Analyst: 77% of the 4.5M apps on iOS are games, down from past years
App Annie has published an interesting report that looks at data from the past ten years to track the growth and evolution of the iOS App Store.
June 1, 2018
Streaming BlazBlue's campaign is strictly off-limits, warns Arc System Works
Streaming BlazBlue's campaign is strictly off-limits, warns Arc System Works
The developer has detailed its "non-negotiable" rules for how BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and most other Arc System Works games can be streamed or otherwise shared in online videos.
June 1, 2018
Free-to-play Pokemon Quest passes 1M downloads on Switch
Free-to-play Pokemon Quest passes 1M downloads on Switch
Game Freak’s free-to-play Pokemon title has already grabbed 1 million downloads on the Nintendo Switch, just two days after its near-simultaneous reveal and release.
June 1, 2018
How Disjoint got a perfect 5 star rating (almost)
How Disjoint got a perfect 5 star rating (almost)
CopperBrains' first release, Disjoint, was released in Nov 2017 and sits on the App Store with a nearly perfect 5 star rating.
June 1, 2018
The unexpectedly long tail of a shmup called AQUA KITTY.
The unexpectedly long tail of a shmup called AQUA KITTY.
In game development things do not always go to plan, and sometimes in a good way! In this blog post we track the long tail of a small shmup, featuring cats in submarines.
June 1, 2018
Nordisk Film has acquired the developers of Just Cause and Mad Max, Avalanche Studios
Nordisk Film has acquired the developers of Just Cause and Mad Max, Avalanche Studios
May 31, 2018