Game Development reports and market data
Documents
How Kolibri Made Idle Miner Tycoon | New Game Development Process
Kolibri Games, a mobile developer founded by university students, achieved significant success with its flagship titles, Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon, which have collectively amassed approximately 100 million downloads.
- Kolibri Games utilizes a lean development cycle consisting of a two-month prototyping phase followed by one month of testing to validate core mechanics before a soft launch.
- The company scales projects into live-service models only after validating key performance indicators, specifically day-one, day-seven, and day-thirty retention metrics during soft launches.
- New projects are developed by small, agile teams typically composed of one product manager, one or two developers, and one artist to minimize bureaucracy and accelerate decision-making.
From Shore to Horizon: Creating a Practical Tessellation Based Solution
Eidos Montreal’s internal research and development division focuses on creating scalable technical solutions that facilitate cross-studio collaboration and enhance visual fidelity across major titles.
- To maintain rasterizer efficiency, the ocean mesh uses tessellation factors that avoid triangles smaller than 16 pixels in screen area, as recommended by AMD GNC architecture guidelines.
- The system utilizes a radial ocean mesh divided into 100-meter by 100-meter patches, which are displaced using vector displacement rather than simple height maps to properly simulate water churn and lateral movement.
- Open water motion is generated by mixing eight Gerstner waves in descending order of frequency, where smaller waves are deformed by larger ones to increase realism and reduce crest pinching.
GDC Plays Superliminal with Pillow Castle Games' Albert Shih
Superliminal centers on a unique perspective-based mechanic where the scale of objects is determined by the player’s forced perspective.
- Superliminal’s core mechanic uses raycasting and depth-aware projection to manipulate object scale based on forced perspective, challenging traditional spatial reasoning.
- The game’s design philosophy prioritizes 'epiphany-driven' gameplay, focusing on sudden player realizations rather than requiring high-level mechanical skill.
- The six-year development cycle necessitated rigorous playtesting to manage player expectations and mitigate frustration caused by the game's unconventional mechanics.
Riot Pays Out $10 Million Dollars to Women | Games ReCAP
Riot Games has reached a $10 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit filed by female employees regarding systemic gender discrimination and a toxic workplace culture.
- Riot Games reached a $10 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit concerning systemic gender discrimination and a toxic workplace culture.
- The settlement provides financial compensation to women employed at Riot Games over the five-year period preceding the legal action.
- The lawsuit followed investigative reports that exposed widespread professional misconduct and pay inequity, implicating high-level leadership at the studio.
Imposter Syndrome - Fake It Till You Make It - Extra Credits
Imposter syndrome is a prevalent psychological phenomenon in creative industries, including game development, characterized by the persistent belief that one’s achievements are unearned and that one will eventually be exposed as a fraud.
- Approximately 70% of professionals experience imposter syndrome at some point in their careers, regardless of their level of success.
- Imposter syndrome manifests as a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud, leading to chronic stress, burnout, and counterproductive behaviors like overworking or avoiding career advancement.
- The condition is universal rather than gender-specific, though it is frequently intensified by hyper-competitive environments and the experience of being an outlier in homogenous workplaces.
Addressing Exploit Abuse in EVE Online with Customer Care
EVE Online operates as a complex, player-driven economy where character progression is intrinsically linked to real-time skill training and the conversion of skill points into in-game currency.
- The 'ghost training' exploit in EVE Online allowed players to bypass free-to-play restrictions and generate massive amounts of skill points, which were then converted into in-game currency (ISK) via skill injectors, threatening both the game's economy and its business model.
- CCP Games identified that the exploit stemmed from a backend calculation error where skill progress was only recorded upon login, allowing players to trigger training for Omega-level skills on Alpha (free) accounts.
- Following a public disclosure of the exploit on Reddit in May 2017, CCP Games investigated 6,036 characters across 119 individuals, resulting in the permanent banning of 796 accounts belonging to 23 primary offenders.
Photogrammetry is the Future! So Don't Be Left Behind Featuring Jonathan Holmes | GduX.me
The modern game development landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift toward photogrammetry and expansive asset libraries, which have become essential standards for achieving photorealistic environments.
- Approximately 50 to 60 percent of major game studios now utilize photogrammetry and expansive asset libraries to automate repetitive manual tasks.
- Photogrammetry shifts the artist's role from labor-intensive asset generation to higher-level creative composition and environmental storytelling.
- Industry competitiveness is increasingly defined by technical agility and the ability to adapt to evolving software ecosystems rather than adherence to legacy workflows.
Games that Change Lives: Social Impact Done Right
Games possess a unique capacity to influence societal perspectives, functioning as both entertainment and vehicles for meaningful reflection.
- Effective social impact design requires integrating themes into the narrative rather than relying on didactic moralizing, which risks alienating players.
- Developers should collaborate with subject-matter experts and victim support organizations to ensure narrative accuracy and avoid the use of harmful tropes.
- Gated progression systems force players to synthesize information and apply learned knowledge to overcome obstacles, transforming passive consumption into active learning.
How To Make Sound Effects For Games
This tutorial provides a foundational guide for indie game developers on creating custom sound effects using accessible tools.
- High-quality game audio can be produced using accessible, low-cost tools like Audacity and standard recording hardware such as smartphones or USB microphones.
- Sound design serves as a critical functional component of game development by providing essential player feedback and establishing the overall project immersion.
- The core technical workflow for creating assets involves noise reduction, volume shaping via the envelope tool, and isolating segments using clip boundaries.
India GDC 2019 | Day in the Life at a Games Conference
India GDC 2019, held in Hyderabad, served as a central hub for over 3,000 video game industry professionals and 200 speakers to discuss the evolving landscape of the Indian gaming market.
- India GDC 2019 in Hyderabad hosted over 3,000 industry professionals and 200 speakers, signaling the country's transition from a support-focused hub to a center for original product development and mid-core gaming.
- Global studios including GSN Games, Imangi, and Miniclip are actively leveraging India’s large player base and technical talent pool to drive their regional and international strategies.
- Modern mobile game publishing success in the region is increasingly reliant on data-driven decision-making, specifically through the use of soft launches and rigorous analysis of retention, engagement, and conversion metrics.
Loading Screens - The Waiting Game - Extra Credits
Loading screens are an inevitable byproduct of modern game development, as the pursuit of higher graphical fidelity and larger game worlds continues to outpace hardware optimization.
- Loading screens should be treated as deliberate design opportunities to maintain immersion rather than viewed solely as unavoidable technical hurdles.
- Effective loading screens must include motion to provide essential feedback that the system is functioning and not frozen.
- Developers can increase player engagement by providing value through relevant content, such as the world-building item descriptions found in Dark Souls.
Animation Bootcamp: Bringing Life to the Machines of Horizon Zero Dawn
The development of mechanical creatures for Horizon Zero Dawn centered on the challenge of blending realistic animalistic movement with industrial, machine-based aesthetics.
- Guerrilla Games utilized a 'mood board' and personality video process, dedicating three weeks to defining character behavior before starting final animation to ensure consistent machine identity.
- The team used a custom AI mover system that dynamically adjusts forward and sideways velocity based on directional changes, allowing for animation-driven movement that minimizes foot sliding.
- To handle complex terrain without the time to create individual slope animations for 25 machines, the team implemented uneven terrain nodes in Morpheme to procedurally adjust character posture.
Writers
Games and companies
Games