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I Made The Fastest Snail in The Multiverse (Devlog)
Will You Snail is an indie platformer featuring a fast-paced snail protagonist navigating a world governed by an antagonistic AI that predicts player movement in real-time.
- Will You Snail is a solo-developed, fast-paced platformer featuring an antagonistic AI that predicts player movement in real-time.
- The project has achieved a significant marketing milestone by surpassing 10,000 wishlists on the Steam platform.
- The game is designed for a four-hour runtime and incorporates a dual-tier progression system based on skill points from high-difficulty levels and exploration points from puzzles.
GDC Summer Dev Speedrun - Star Wars: Republic Commando With Harley Baldwin
The development of Star Wars: Republic Commando, released in 2005, serves as a case study in balancing ambitious squad-based mechanics with the severe hardware constraints of the original Xbox.
- To address player feedback that the game did not feel like a squad-based experience, the development team implemented a simple code change that defaulted the squad to 'search and destroy' behavior whenever the player entered a new area, ensuring the AI remained visible and active.
- Technical limitations in Unreal Engine 2 and the hardware of the era forced level designers to use short hallways to connect large arenas, as the engine struggled to render expansive environments alongside the necessary connective geometry.
- Early prototypes for vehicle-based or moving-platform gameplay were abandoned because the physics simulation costs were prohibitively expensive for the hardware available at the time of development.
GDC Summer Dev Speedrun - Yooka Laylee And The Impossible Lair With Chris Sutherland
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair utilizes a unique health-based progression system where players collect bees to act as shields, allowing them to attempt the final, high-difficulty gauntlet at any point in the game.
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair features a health system where players collect up to 48 'Bees' that act as a shield, allowing the game to become progressively easier as the player collects more items.
- Developers at Playtonic Games intentionally leave certain bugs and exploits in the game if they are difficult to encounter, do not corrupt save files, and provide excitement for speedrunners.
- The game utilizes the Unity engine, which differs from the development process of the Donkey Kong Country era by allowing for more modern, flexible workflows and physics-based interactions.
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Episode 8: Mikko Kodisoja leaves Supercell, Crash Bandicoot Mobile, and more
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural and regulatory transition.
- PUBG Mobile has surpassed $3 billion in lifetime revenue, with the Chinese localized version, Game for Peace, serving as the primary driver for this growth.
- New ISBN approval requirements in China are creating significant barriers to entry for independent developers, effectively consolidating market power among established giants like Tencent and NetEase.
- AT&T is considering a $4 billion divestiture of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, attracting interest from Microsoft and EA despite the exclusion of key intellectual properties like Batman and Harry Potter.
Embracer Group Acquires New World Interactive
Embracer Group has acquired New World Interactive (NWI), an indie-spirited FPS specialist with AAA potential, known for its proprietary titles that have collectively generated over $50 million in revenues.
- Embracer Group has acquired New World Interactive, integrating the studio into its Saber Interactive operative group to bolster its first-person shooter portfolio.
- The deal is structured to recoup the total investment within approximately three years, relying on existing proprietary titles and new, undisclosed intellectual properties.
- New World Interactive brings a portfolio of three titles that have generated over $50 million in collective revenue and a dedicated user base exceeding 10 million players.
Embracer Group Acquires Rare Earth Games
Embracer Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Amplifier, has acquired 100% of Rare Earth Games, a Vienna-based studio founded in 2020 by three industry veterans.
- Embracer Group, through its subsidiary Amplifier, has acquired Vienna-based developer Rare Earth Games to bolster its creative portfolio.
- The deal includes an initial payment of €0.3 million in cash and Embracer B shares, with an additional €3 million in performance-based earnouts tied to net contribution milestones over five and ten years.
- Rare Earth Games is currently developing an online multiplayer co-op game that incorporates roguelike elements and team-based strategy.
Embracer Group Acquires Pow Wow Entertainment
Embracer Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary THQ Nordic, has acquired 100% of Pow Wow Entertainment, a Vienna-based game development studio.
- Embracer Group has acquired Vienna-based Pow Wow Entertainment, integrating the 20-person studio into its THQ Nordic subsidiary.
- Pow Wow Entertainment will retain operational independence and creative autonomy while continuing to self-publish its titles.
- The studio’s current development pipeline includes an original roguelike multiplayer platformer and a project utilizing an existing THQ Nordic intellectual property.
Embracer Group M&A Update: August 13, 2020
Embracer Group announced the acquisition of DECA Games, 4A Games, New World Entertainment, Pow Wow Entertainment, Sola Media, Rare Earth Games, and Vermila Studios, significantly expanding its portfolio.
- Embracer Group has transitioned into a conglomerate structure organized into six operating groups: THQ Nordic, Koch Media, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive, and DECA.
- The company employs a decentralized governance model that allows original founders and management teams to retain operational autonomy while utilizing centralized capital and strategic support.
- As of August 2020, the portfolio includes 43 internal studios, 55 external studios, and 190 intellectual properties.
When a Game is Too Long - Respecting the Player's Time - Extra Credits
The core thesis of this analysis is that game developers must prioritize player time as a valuable resource, shifting the industry focus from quantity of content to the quality of engagement.
- Developers must shift their design philosophy from prioritizing arbitrary game length to maximizing the quality of player engagement.
- Excessive content padding, such as repetitive fetch quests and artificial grinds, leads to player burnout and diminishes the overall value of the experience.
- Non-engaging tasks like obtuse user interfaces, unskippable technical hurdles, and tedious inventory management act as barriers that should be streamlined to keep players focused on rewarding gameplay.
GDC Summer Dev Speedrun - Skyrim With Jonah Lobe
The development of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim represents a unique intersection between ambitious open-world design and the unintended technical exploits discovered by the speedrunning community.
- Bethesda’s reliance on system-driven gameplay created an environment where technical quirks like load warping and quick-save exploits—persistent since Fallout 3—enabled the speedrunning community to manipulate game states.
- The development of creatures like the Spriggan and Alduin required a pipeline spanning several months per asset, balancing artistic iteration with the technical requirements of performance optimization.
- The art department utilized ZBrush and Marmoset to prioritize a 'lived-in' aesthetic through high-resolution normal maps, focusing on realistic weight and foundational shapes rather than rigid technical metrics.
Quad Mesh Simplification in Frostbite
The Frostbite engine’s quad mesh simplification technology, developed in collaboration with BioWare starting in 2012, addresses the limitations of traditional triangle-based level-of-detail (LOD) generation.
- Frostbite’s quad-based simplification technology, developed with BioWare since 2012, preserves intentional edge flow in character models to prevent deformation issues common in traditional triangle-based LOD generation.
- The system utilizes 'poly-quad' collapse operators that treat sequences of adjacent quads as atomic units, ensuring the structural integrity of the mesh is maintained during reduction.
- Artists can exert granular control over the simplification process through a priority-painting system and sub-poly-quad collapse capabilities, which allow for local refinement in critical areas like faces.
Monetise not Bastardise | PocketGamer.biz RoundTable
The mobile gaming industry is currently undergoing a critical transition in its approach to monetization, moving away from disruptive, full-screen video ads that often degrade user experience and retention.
- Mobile gaming has evolved into the largest digital medium, shifting from a niche market in 2014-2015 to a global audience that requires more sophisticated, non-intrusive monetization strategies.
- Programmatic audio advertising has expanded from a U.S.-centric model to over 50 countries, driven by the massive growth in music and podcast consumption on platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube.
- Player retention is heavily impacted by ad frequency and placement; developers must align ad triggers with natural game flow transitions—specifically the shift from frustration to relief—to maintain immersion.
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