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Documents
Gaming Founders Podcast53 min
From Passion to Palia: Unraveling the Gaming Industry with Aidan Karabaich of Singularity 6
The gaming industry is currently witnessing a shift toward community-focused simulation titles, a trend exemplified by the development of Palia.
- Singularity 6, founded by Riot Games alumni Aidan Karabaich and Anthony Leung, secured early venture capital funding by pitching the underserved 'cozy' community simulation genre to investors like LVP.
- The studio prioritizes hiring for critical thinking and design talent by treating designers as product leads, requiring them to articulate the fundamental 'why' behind design decisions rather than relying solely on intuition.
- To avoid insular 'groupthink' and culture-cloning, the founders intentionally diversified their leadership and executive teams rather than relying exclusively on their professional networks from Riot Games and Obsidian.
Gaming Founders PodcastJul 2023
Jonas Tyroller2 min
Announcing Thronefall's Release Date
Thronefall, a medieval base defense game developed by Grizzly Games, is scheduled for an Early Access launch on August 2, 2023.
- Grizzly Games will launch its medieval base defense title, Thronefall, into Early Access on August 2, 2023.
- The initial Early Access release will include four distinct levels, consisting of one tutorial and three primary stages, plus a variety of gameplay perks.
- The developers are adopting a transparent pricing model that reflects the game's current content volume rather than charging for speculative future updates.
Jonas TyrollerJul 2023
Thomas Brush60 min
The Path To Full Time Game Development Income | EP 007
Achieving financial sustainability in independent game development requires a strategic hybrid model that balances high-margin contract work with the long-term pursuit of original intellectual property.
- Achieve financial sustainability by adopting a hybrid model that uses high-margin work-for-hire contracts to fund the development of original intellectual property.
- Secure predictable cash flow by targeting non-gaming sectors such as cybersecurity, manufacturing, and food service, where project budgets typically range from $10,000 to $100,000.
- Position the studio as a high-value problem solver by creating interactive experiences for corporate trade shows and internal events rather than competing as a commodity laborer.
Thomas BrushJul 2023
Thomas Brush13 min
Game Development for Dummies | The Ultimate Guide
Game development is fundamentally a process of integrating digital assets with logical scripts within a game engine.
- Game development architecture centers on integrating digital assets, such as 3D models and audio, with logical scripts within engines like Unity, Unreal, or Godot.
- Game objects or actors serve as the primary containers for all game elements, utilizing components like colliders and rigid bodies to define physical attributes and interactions.
- Scripting logic relies on two core functions: the start function for one-time initialization and the update function for continuous, real-time loops governing movement and input.
Thomas BrushJul 2023
Game Developers Conference53 min
Benefits of Missing Out: What 'Cyberpunk 2077' Taught Us About Non-Linear Level Design
The pursuit of player freedom in Cyberpunk 2077 necessitates a sophisticated approach to level design that balances narrative cohesion with diverse gameplay archetypes.
- Level designers should embrace the 'Benefits of Missing Out,' accepting that players can miss content if that absence is the result of choosing a different, equally rewarding path.
- The 'generic path' should not be the default difficulty; instead, playstyle-specific paths should offer the least resistance to reinforce player power fantasies, while generic paths serve as a challenging fallback.
- To enhance the perceived distance between branching paths, designers should prioritize limited visibility and difficult access points rather than relying solely on physical distance, which is often constrained by production realities.
Game Developers ConferenceJul 2023
Game Dev Unchained83 min
The Story of Battlebit Remastered with Max Fink (theliquidhorse) | 324
BattleBit Remastered serves as a case study in the viability of community-centric, independent game development.
- BattleBit Remastered achieved a peak of 87,000 concurrent players by prioritizing high-performance, large-scale shooter mechanics over high-fidelity graphics to run on low-end hardware.
- The project succeeded without traditional marketing budgets, relying instead on organic growth, word-of-mouth, and Steam’s discovery algorithms and Playtest feature.
- The developers maintained creative autonomy and an authentic player experience by self-financing the project since its 2016 inception, avoiding external publisher pressure.
Game Dev UnchainedJul 2023
GameMakers51 min
GameDev Story: Brewed Games builds a Souls-like Action RPG game Winds of Arcana for PC
Brewed Games, an eight-person independent studio based in Bangalore, India, is currently developing Winds of Arcana: Ruination, a 2.5D souls-like action platformer for PC.
- Bangalore-based Brewed Games is developing 'Winds of Arcana: Ruination,' a 2.5D souls-like action platformer for PC, with a target launch date in early 2024.
- The eight-person studio secured pre-seed funding from Ventana Ventures to transition from self-funded bootstrapping to a structured production environment.
- The game features a 'Rune Shard' combat system and is designed to provide over 20 hours of gameplay with full voice acting and a narrative-heavy world.
GameMakersJul 2023
Jonas Tyroller23 min
Dear Game Developers, Stop Messing This Up!
The primary objective is to clarify the correct implementation of DeltaTime in game development to ensure frame-rate independence.
- DeltaTime is not a universal multiplier; it must be applied contextually, as using it for instantaneous events like jumping is logically incorrect.
- Simple multiplication of speed by DeltaTime creates a one-frame delay, which is acceptable for basic linear movement but insufficient for complex motion like linear acceleration.
- For precise movement calculations, developers should calculate the average speed over the frame interval to accurately represent the area under the motion curve.
Jonas TyrollerJun 2023
GameMakers96 min
Serkan Toto on Top Japanese and Korean Video Game Companies | Pixels & Profits #3
The Japanese and Korean video game industries represent a complex landscape defined by distinct regional preferences and divergent strategic responses to global market trends.
- Sony has dominated the console market over Microsoft, evidenced by the PlayStation 4 generation selling over 120 million units compared to Microsoft's decision to stop reporting hardware sales in 2015.
- Nintendo remains committed to portable hardware because the brand is inextricably linked to the Pokemon franchise, which has been synonymous with handheld gaming since 1996.
- Square Enix underwent a leadership change following the controversial divestment of several studios to Embracer Group, a move criticized for its low valuation and rapid execution.
GameMakersJun 2023
Gaming Founders Podcast74 min
The Art of Game Creation: Slim and Trevor of Valorant and Raid Base Live from LA Tech Week
Successful game development hinges on the ability to maintain a singular, cohesive vision through rigorous focus and intentional team structure.
- To resolve design ambiguity during prototyping, Raid Base utilizes a stack-ranked list of approximately 80 features to assess existential questions and prioritize development based on opportunity cost.
- When building a new game, keeping the team size thin is critical to avoid 'too many cooks' and to maintain focus while resolving subjective design decisions.
- Founders should prioritize soft skills, empathy, and team alignment over raw technical capability, as lack of cultural fit is a more common cause of failure than insufficient discipline expertise.
Gaming Founders PodcastJun 2023
How To Market A Game33 min
Steam Next Fest 2023 Preview MONO
Steam Next Fest functions as a pivotal visibility engine for independent developers, serving as a primary mechanism to drive wishlist velocity and secure placement on Steam’s influential discovery widgets.
- Steam Next Fest participation is a one-time opportunity, making it most effective when scheduled immediately before the game's full commercial launch to convert demo momentum into sales.
- Developers can estimate their total event performance by applying a 4.0x to 5.0x multiplier to their day-one wishlist totals.
- While top-tier titles can secure up to 60,000 wishlists during the event, most participants should realistically expect gains closer to 1,000 wishlists.
How To Market A GameJun 2023
Jonas Tyroller14 min
150+ Days of Development = YOU Can PLAY Now!
Thronefall is a minimalist base-defense game that balances daytime base building with nighttime combat against enemy waves.
- Thronefall, a minimalist base-defense game developed by a two-person team, has transitioned into its marketing phase following the release of a playable Steam demo.
- Technical optimizations, including batching and GPU instancing, increased performance from below 60 FPS to 140 FPS on high-end hardware.
- The developers utilized AI tools such as ChatGPT to assist with debugging complex systems and implementing custom shaders for environmental effects.
Jonas TyrollerJun 2023