atlas news
    
Game Developer
19  avril     15h11
Amazon confirms a second season of Fallout is on the way
Chris Kerr    It’s the bomb.
    13h00
Solo-Devs and Risk-Takers (An Artistic Exploration of Experimental Tools)
Nathalie Lawhead    Tools outside of the mainstream, made by just one person, a group of friends, or a small team... all asking what if, and then exploring how their tool can empower creation in an idealistically creative way.
    11h30
Overwatch 2 players who use ’unapproved peripherals’ could receive permanent bans
Chris Kerr    Blizzard will also punish offending players by forcing them to compete against mouse and keyboard users.
    09h41
Gamedev.world launching Global Games Fund to support devs in emergent territories
Chris Kerr    Any developer, anywhere, and in any language, deserves access to funding structures and opportunities to make great games.’
18  avril     18h26
Devolver financials show stable 2023, despite ’quiet’ first-half
Justin Carter    nearly had Devolver in the first half, but the publisher managed to recover with its newer releases and some old favorites.
    16h35
Modern Wolf lays off six staff in studio restructuring
Justin Carter    The publisher’s cuts come nearly a year after the launch of Cantata in mid , and it’s yet to release a game in .
    16h00
Postmortem: The Sirena Expedition
David Thatcher    I’d like to talk a bit about the development of the game, and look at some of what I thought went well, along with what didn’t go quite so well.’
    16h00
Book Excerpt: Game Design Workshop, 5th Edition
Tracy Fullerton    This updated th edition brings deeper coverage of playcentric design techniques, including setting emotion focused experience goals and managing the design process to meet them. It includes a host of new diverse perspectives from top industry game designers.’
    15h34
The ’rushed’ attempt to rehabilitate Cities Skylines II is becoming a cautionary tale
Chris Kerr    Paradox and Colossal Order are struggling to rework Cities Skylines II after a tough launch window, and have now apologized for rushing DLC out of the door.
    13h00
Bringing Loterà a from the Kitchen Table to Mobile Phone Screens
Audrey White    Translating Years of Gameplay, Cultural History, and Memories Into a Digital Experience.
    12h34
CI Games CEO lauds record annual revenues months after cutting 10 percent of jobs
Chris Kerr    The Lords of the Fallen developer earned million during fiscal , representing its ’best ever’ year in terms of revenue.
    12h12
Playdate devs have earned over 500,000 through Catalog
Chris Kerr    With more than , units sold and over , in gross revenue dished out to developers through Catalog, Playdate continues to grow.
17  avril     19h03
UK Games Fund grants 3 million to 22 ’rising’ game developers
Justin Carter    The multi million pound funding will go towards startup studios whose projecs have the potential to be ’the next best selling, BAFTA winning titles.’
    18h13
Sea of Thieves sails to 40 million players ahead of PS5 launch
Justin Carter    With a new console release on the horizon, Rare’s six year old pirate game has hit an amazing player milestone.
    17h09
Ghost of Tsushima’s PC port introduces new PlayStation overlay, trophy support
Justin Carter    Sucker Punch’s samurai game is bringing Trophies to PC in the aims of giving PC players the semi full PlayStation experience.
    16h32
Ready or Not source code stolen in developer hack
Justin Carter    Void Interactive claims the hackers stole no personal data, just information concerning future plans for Ready or Not.
    16h00
The Joy and Pain of Game Mastery
Josh Bycer    Mastery is not something as a designer that you can force players to go after, but it does have benefits for casual players that you might not realize.’
    15h37
The Game Show Interview: Starting a Career as a Game Composer
Winifred Phillips    Transcript of the uncut interview of game composer Winifred Phillips by Meena Shamaly, host of ABC Classic’s The Game Show.
    10h17
Take-Two is making layoffs weeks after dropping 460M on Gearbox Interactive
Chris Kerr    The publisher will spend up to million on a cost reduction program that will also include project cancellations.
16  avril     18h55
Warren Spector says the next logical step for immersive sims is multiplayer
Bryant Francis    The Deus Ex director is still taking inspiration from tabletop with Otherside Entertainment’s Thick as Thieves.
    18h34
Rovio’s Moomin mobile game goes offline in July
Justin Carter    After a soft launch back in , Moomin: Puzzles Design will go offline over the summer.
    17h18
70 percent of devs unsure of live-service games sustainability
Justin Carter    With so many games fighting for players’ attention and interest losing out over time, time sink games are at risk of losing steam eventually.
    16h28
Descent 3’s source code has been released for free use
Justin Carter    Programmer Kevin Bentley put out most of the game’s source code for players to help maintain and use for their own ends.
    16h00
How SUDA51 and Hitman inspired cult indie shooter Children of the Sun
René Rother    There’s one thing that combines those two games: they require patience and experimentation. They are expressive. Even though on the surface they’re very different, they both just feel amazing to play ’
    16h00
Deep Dive: Conquering hardware hurdles to port Kingdom Come: Deliverance to Switch
Zhanna Goranskaya    Extra computations are an unaffordable luxury.’
    14h59
UK studio Kwalee is making layoffs to create room for new hires
Chris Kerr    We are reshaping our business and our team to best capture the significant growth opportunities that currently exist in the sector.’
    14h21
Owlchemy Labs’ CEO has some advice for other industry leaders: ’Don’t chase trends, chase players’
Chris Kerr    It’s always easy to get seduced by the trappings of it all and not get to the core of ’why do players enjoy this ’’
    13h13
PUBG maker Krafton leads 15M investment in to UK studio Red Rover Interactive
Chris Kerr    Their commitment to player centric, iterative development resonates strongly with PUBG’s ethos.’
    10h16
Roblox introducing new ’publishing advance’ fee as it opens up creator marketplace
Chris Kerr    Creators looking to sell their own user made Roblox assets must pay the rebatable advance when they publish to Marketplace.
15  avril     18h38
Charting the Journey of SOUL COVENANT: A New Frontier in VR JRPGs
Masaru Ohnogi    As we edge closer to unveiling SOUL COVENANT to the world, it’s crucial to reflect on the path that brought us here a journey marked by innovation and a passion for defining the VR landscape.
    18h07
Fallout games double in player count after Prime series premiere
Justin Carter    Watch the show based on the games, play the games, it’s the adaptation cycle.
    17h16
Rockstar quietly bumps up GTA Online’s subscripion price
Justin Carter    The GTA service got a small price bump without much fanfare or explanation to show for it.
    16h32
Skybound turns to crowdfunding for triple-A Invincible game
Justin Carter    Skybound’s path to its high octane Invincible game seemingly lies in the hands of its fanbase.
    15h31
Taking first-party data to the next level with machine learning
Greg Castro    Greg Castro, VP of Global Partnerships at Mobvista, examines how privacy regulations have spotlighted first party data and how machine learning can help companies leverage it to the best effect.
    13h18
UK video game and interactive entertainment sector valued at 7.82 billion in 2023
Chris Kerr    Console hardware and digital software sales propped up the latest valuation.
    11h29
Content Warning sells 1 million copies following launch giveaway
Chris Kerr    Going viral.
12  avril     18h38
Crash 4: It’s About Time has sold over 5 million copies
Justin Carter    Crash Bandicoot’s return was more successful than you may have believed.
    17h26
Baldur’s Gate 3 crowned Game of the Year at 2024 BAFTA Game Awards
Justin Carter    Hold tight, don’t fight the power of Baldur’s Gate .
    17h09
Establishing partnerships with major IPs: benefits and nuances for mobile game developers
Liza Savenkova    Even small companies can forge partnerships with top tier brands like Disney, Marvel, and Mattel, negotiating collaborations that bring mutual benefits.
    17h04
Pre-Production and Brainstorming Optimization
Anjali Tyagi    Here are your big fives on getting over the hurdle of an AI generated Google feed that’s static upon first glance.
    16h52
Distributed’ studio Possibility Space abruptly shut down by Prytania Media
Justin Carter    Prytania Media’s first subsidiary has been closed without warning, according to those affected.
    16h36
Avalanche Studios devs form bargaining agreement with Swedish unions
Justin Carter    Avalanche Studios CEO Stefanà a Halld rsd ttir said the bargaining agreements help the studio become one of the best workplaces in the games industry.
    13h52
Epic execs say IP holders don’t care about Fortnite, but they really want its ecosystem
Chris Kerr    Epic CTO Kim Libreri and EVP Saxs Persson explain why some of the biggest businesses in the world are flocking to Fortnite.
    13h00
How to build branching narrative without breaking the bank
Bryant Francis    Freelance game writer and narrative designer Nessa Cannon wants devs to know they can craft meaningful narrative choices without overscoping.
11  avril     19h27
EA reportedly cuts Apex Legends’ UK-based QA team
Justin Carter    contract workers have allegedly been let go from Apex Legends’ QA team in the UK, weeks before their contracts expire.
    18h12
Slay the Spire devs followed through on abandoning Unity
Justin Carter    Slaying spires with Godot.
    17h31
Report: Dead Space shelved again as Motive prioritizes Iron Man and Battlefield
Justin Carter    Here for a good, not a long time.
    17h04
CD Projekt interested in multiplayer components, but insists single-player games are still king
Chris Kerr    It’s not about slicing the single player components even thinner just for the sake of adding multiplayer.
    16h55
Koei Tecmo sues mobile dev Youzoo for repeated copyright infringement
Justin Carter    Koei Tecmo claims, despite numerous cease and desists, that Youzoo kept using material from its games to advertise its own mobile titles.
    16h00
Why Risk of Rain Returns is taking the series back to 2D
John Harris    Hopoo co founder Paul Morse chats about the upcoming game and reveals why the series’ future is reverting to its visual past.