News

What makes a great in-game loot box? Devs weigh in
What makes a great in-game loot box? Devs weigh in
"We wanted it to be this festive Christmas experience," Halo 5 dev Christopher Bloom tells Kotaku. "But you can't do it all the time or you lose the specialness."
March 20, 2017
Dwarf Fortress dev: 'It's kind of funny, we never achieved our original goals'
Dwarf Fortress dev: 'It's kind of funny, we never achieved our original goals'
"This random side project suddenly becomes our fantasy game," Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams told PC Gamer, reflecting on the game's development. "And it's been strange to adapt to that."
March 20, 2017
Get a job: thatgamecompany is hiring a Senior Gameplay Engineer
Get a job: thatgamecompany is hiring a Senior Gameplay Engineer
Thatgamecompany is looking for a Senior Gameplay Engineer to work on creature behaviors, procedural animation, and more for its upcoming game in Santa Monica, California.
March 20, 2017
Video: Full Throttle composer shares lessons to learn from 'classic' game music
Video: Full Throttle composer shares lessons to learn from 'classic' game music
At GDC 2015, veteran game composer Peter McConnell (Monkey Island 2, Grim Fandango) took the stage to reflect on the lessons he'd learned from composing classic game soundtracks in the '90s.
March 20, 2017
How have our impressions of the Switch changed since launch?
How have our impressions of the Switch changed since launch?
Now that we've had a bit of time to mess around with the device in a variety of settings, we decided to hold an impromptu discussion about the plusses and minuses of the Nintendo Switch.
March 20, 2017
Video Game Deep Cuts: The Oregon Trail CIA Escape
Video Game Deep Cuts: The Oregon Trail CIA Escape
This week's longform game article/video highlights include CIA board games, the art of escape rooms and The Oregon Trail's genesis.
March 20, 2017
Building a simple procedurally-generated platformer
Building a simple procedurally-generated platformer
An example of an algorithm we might use to procedurally generate simple "endless runner" levels.
March 20, 2017
Indie Exhibiting at PAX East
Indie Exhibiting at PAX East
Sharing my experiences as a first time exhibitor to PAX East.
March 20, 2017
Re-Visiting GDC 2015: Monetization, Retention, Design
Re-Visiting GDC 2015: Monetization, Retention, Design
Game industry evolves rapidly and YoY changes may completely shift the market. Sometimes it may be useful to revise "wisdom of the past". The post contains list of GDC presentations that touch fields of monetization, retention and game design in genral.
March 20, 2017
An Iterative Approach to Quest Design
An Iterative Approach to Quest Design
Creating quests with branching narratives for open world games is no simple task. By applying a simple iterative method, you can save yourself from many problems later on in the process.
March 20, 2017
The Truth About Growing Indie Communities That GDC Missed
The Truth About Growing Indie Communities That GDC Missed
At GDC 2017, the session “Beyond the Install: "Building Robust Communities on Mobile," Andrew Stalbow agreed – "Community building is the best marketing you’ll ever do." So -- how do you handle trolls?
March 20, 2017
Star Citizen will support the Vulkan API and will eventually drop DirectX 11 support
Star Citizen will support the Vulkan API and will eventually drop DirectX 11 support
March 19, 2017