TechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Unity promises to deliver 'battle-tested' Switch 2 supportUnity promises to deliver 'battle-tested' Switch 2 supportThe engine maker wants to help developers 'push the power' of the Switch 2 without compromising performance.Chris Kerr, News EditorApril 2, 20251 Min ReadImage via NintendoThe Nintendo Switch 2 will be hitting shelves on June 5 and engine maker Unity has outlined how it will support developers targeting the next-generation platform.The company explained support for Switch 2 will be made available "soon" in Unity 6 and will enable developers to seamlessly build, port, optimize, and deploy their projects on the console.It said developers will be able to leverage performance optimization tools such as the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), Spatial-Temporal Post-Processing (STP), and GPU Resident Drawer to "push the power" of the Nintendo Switch 2 without compromising performance.It has also promised improved multiplayer capabilities that expand on its existing Nintendo Switch support, which feels particularly notable given Nintendo placed multiplayer and social features front-and-centre during its Switch 2 showcase.Enhanced developer documentation for Nintendo Switch 2 will be rolled out to make it easier for developers to get to grips with the platform.Unity also intends to make it easier for devs to port titles from the Nintendo Switch to Switch 2 by ensuring full compatibility with key features in Unity 6including the new input system, Build Profiles, and Incremental Build Pipeline.According to Unity CEO Matthew Bromberg, the company has already "battle-tested" its production capabilities through hands-on development of a unnamed Switch 2 launch title.Related:"The valuable feedback obtained during the development process provided learnings that will drive further enhancements to the Unity engine for those developers building new games for this gaming system," he added.Unity noted that any users looking to target the platform must be an approved Nintendo Switch 2 developer.Read more about:UnityNintendo Switch 2NintendoAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

When New Zealand studio Black Salt Games began work on Dredge in 2020, they didn't think it was going to have much of a narrative at all. The team was tinywith only an artist, programmer, and producerso they were planning for the Eldritch fishing horror to be story-light."We can't really make a narrative game," read a quote by Dredge programmer Joel Mason on an early slide in the Dredge and Yarn Spinner: Building Narrative with Open Source talk at the Game Developers Conference. Jon Manning, narrative technologies lead at Yarn Spinner, spoke about how the Dredge team used the program to develop what turned out to be one of the best narrative games of 2023.Dredge made use of Yarn Spinner, an open source dialogue tool used by a number of award-winning games, including A Short Hike, A Night In The Woods, and Little Kitty, Big City. It helped Black Salt Games develop the majority of their narrative structure once they discovered that players loved the creepy lore of Dredge.Islands of Grief"The original plan was that each of the islands in the archipelago that Dredge is set in represented the Kbler-Ross stages of grief," Manning said. "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The characters at the islands represented these different stages of grief. The fishmonger on greater marrow represents depression."Related:While this idea was eventually abandoned midway through development, it helped solidify the structure of the story and shaped many of the characters found in the 10 hour base adventure. Black Salt Games began writing out their story in a word processor, but found that they would need to work directly within the engine once they created a massive amount of dialogue."Now, dialogue systems are deceptively complicated. I happen to think that they are probably the second most complex system in a game, and certainly the most complicated user facing system," Manning said. "[Many people] write out lines in a spreadsheet, but [don't realize] that if you do that, then you're kind of not quite seeing the larger collection of gotchas that exist."Manning brought up how writing the entirety of your game in something like Microsoft Excel or Word could lead to a number of issues with localization, asset management in relation to specific lines, and event synchronization. Yard Spinner is a tool meant to streamline and make those problems easier to resolve.Hook, Line, and SinkerDredge's gameplay revolves around the player as the protagonista new fisherman that has come to the archipelagosails to different fishing spots and islands, talks to the characters there, and completes tasks for them. The story is told primarily through the dialogue in these conversations. Other narrative vehicles exist in Dredgemessages in a bottle, quest descriptions, etcbut those were not hosted in Yarn Spinner.Related:Black Salt Games had specific guidelines for successful dialogue within Dredge. They didn't put more than 4 or 5 text boxes in front of the player in a row, they limited each text box to 3-4 lines, and set out that each bit of text should do one of three things:Tell the player what they're doingAdvance the story or worldBe creepyYarn Spinner helped the team take that text and integrate it with other systems within Dredge. Lines would have different prompts and commands that brought up a variety of features to pair with dialogue. Names prompted a specific character portrait to come up, colors would highlight certain words based on importance to the player, and while there was no voice over, a command would prompt characters to make a variety of noises."The whole idea behind Yarn Spinner is you write a screenplay and then the game reads and interprets it, and then sends content into the game," Manning said. The way that it does this is via a mechanism that we call the dialogue view."Related:Part of the beauty of Yarn Spinner is these prompts and commands are able to connect the dialogue with so many other narrative elements. It could track how long the player had gone without talking to a certain character, prompting a specific response when that character finally pops up on their screen again. It could trigger visual elementslike a lightning strikein the background for dramatic effect at exactly the right time. It also lets the developers add and remove other elements by editing text in Yarn Spinner, making iteration a simpler process."Seeing the dialogue happen inside the overall gameplay exposed a lot of issues, because seeing it happen live just made it reveal weird connections or janky expositions in a way that you simply don't see when you're reading a linear document," Manning said. "Which meant that iterating on that content was absolutely essential [and] having a tool that lets you iterate quickly and reduce iteration time was really important for the success of Dredge."

After months of speculation following the Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo has shared a flurry of tech specs and explained the console has been "redesigned from the ground up."During a special Nintendo Switch 2 focused Nintendo Direct, the company confirmed its new handheld-hybrid will rock a bigger 7.9 inch screen with approximately double the pixels of the original Switch at the same thickness.The screen will support up to 120fps for smoother gameplay and is billed as a "vivid" 1080p LCD display with HDR support.New Joy-Con 2 controllers will attach magnetically to the console, which Nintendo says will keep them "firmly attached to the system," and feature larger SL / SR buttons and analog sticks.It will also be possible to use both Joy-Con 2 controllers as a mouse to play compatible games.Nintendo showed that feature in action with the reveal of a new title called Drag x Drive, which will require players to drag both controllers across a surface to move their wheelchair in-game.The inclusion of two USB-C ports will facilitate charging when in tabletop mode or let players connect peripherals.The Switch 2 will come with 256GB of internal storage out of the boxeight times more than the original Switch. Reading and writing data is also faster, while an upgraded Nintendo Switch 2 dock will enable up to 4K resolution and HDR support for compatible titles when in TV mode.Related:The dock features a built-in fan to keep the system "stable."Nintendo Switch 2 game cards will have much faster data-reading speeds than their predecessors and sport a bright red colour way. It's currently unclear how they will taste.'C' is for camaraderieA new Nintendo Switch 2 pro controller is also on the way with additional bells and whistles including an audio jack, 'C' button, and extra inputs.Speaking of the 'C' button, the mysterious nubbin will allow players to activate a new 'Game Chat' feature that leverages the Switch 2's built-in microphone.Nintendo says the mic will filter out background noise and dial in on a player's voice. It'll also be possible for users to share their game screen using the Game Chat featureeven while playing different titlesand pull up a chat menu by pressing the 'C' button. Nintendo reckons that'll be useful if people need to mute themselves in a cinch.The company also announced the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, which will let Game Chat users stream their reactions for other players.Nintendo Switch Online will be required to use Game Chatalthough it'll be possible to test the feature out during an open access period.Related:The company is also rolling out an expanded version of its online subscription service called Nintendo Switch Online + that will include access to classic GameCube titles such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, and SoulCalibur II.A Switch 2 owner using Game Chat / Image via NintendoAnother new feature, GameShare, will let Switch and Switch 2 owners share and play compatible multiplayer titles locally on their individual systems.As you'd expect, Nintendo will be supporting its new console with a robust first-party software lineup.Mario Kart World, billed as a more expansive take on the racer, features themed regions with day-night cycles and changing weather conditions. Nintendo said the title will allow up to 24 players to "drive virtually anywhere" in the worldincluding asking them to drive to the next course as part of the competition.Kirby Air Riders, directed by Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai, was also announced alongside 3D platformer Donkey Kong: Banaza. Both are due out in 2025.A screenshot from Mario Kart World showing players racing across an expansive region / Image via NintendoSome existing titles, such as Super Mario Party Jamboree, will also receive premium updates to deliver 'Nintendo Switch 2 Edition' versions that take advantage of new hardware such as the microphone and camera.Enhanced versions of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild will also be rolled out with new features such as voice navigation, HDR support, and more.Related:Players who have already purchased Nintendo Switch 2 Edition compatible titles on the original Switch will be able to upgrade by purchasing an 'upgrade pack.'Upcoming titles such as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokemon Legends Z-A will be launching on both the Switch and Switch 2but will deliver improved performance on the latter.Third-party support was similarly impressive, with Nintendo showcasing a roster including titles such as Elden Ring, Hades II, Street Fighter 6, Split Fiction, Madden NFL, Hogwarts Legacy, Hitman World of Assassination, Project 007, Deltarune (Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4), Borderlands 4, Enter The Gungeon 2, Civilization VII, Cyberpunk 2077, and more.The Switch 2 will launch on June 5, 2025. Consumers will be able to buy the standalone console or a bundle including a digital version of Mario Kart World.Pricing details remain a mystery.

My first formative memory of Valve was in 2009, when Left 4 Dead 2 was released on consoles and PC. At just barely sixteen years old, I didnt think about the developer who made the game, or how long Valve had been shaping the lives of players. I just knew I really enjoyed hunting zombies, and that the game itself was amazing to play.In 2025, Valve carries a completely different weight, as the maker of the Steam Deck, and some of the most iconic online games of our time. From Portal to Half-Life, Valve has challenged and shaped the game industry, but its success was hard-earned, as Monica Harrington explained at GDC 2025.Harrington, the retired CMO of Valve, explained how the company got its start in the late 1990s. While some of this story has been given via Mike Harrington and the Valve documentary Half-Life, Harrington dived into elements of the companys inception with more detail, including the steep costs that can come with throwing everything into a startup company.Success Can Mean Starting OverWhen Harrington became involved with Valve, she was actively working in the marketing department of Microsofts software and growing games department. She had a vision of what the future could hold, and how the consumer games market would grow. She was a driving force behind iconic Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office and the original Flight Simulator.Related:However, when Mike Harrington became involved with and helped found Valve, Monica Harrington found herself pulled into the fray by her then-husbands venture. Valve was picked up by Sierra Entertainment, and production began on the original Half-Life.Harrington explained that the path was grueling. They quickly tapped the bottom of their resources, and she found herself struggling to balance her work at Microsoft while keeping up with Valve.The team was stretched thin, with every member making sacrifices to see Valve succeed. That might be tough to believe given the publisher (and storefront)'s status in 2025, but the beginning was indeed humble.Harrington explained that, as she got to know her team, she became painfully aware of what was riding on the success of Half-Life. It wasnt just about shipping a good game, it was about honoring the team that had built it, and respecting the families and livelihoods at stake if they didnt manage to recoup costs.Because of this, Harrington and the Valve team decided to scrap their first attempt at Half-Life, starting from scratch after being unhappy with where the game was headed. This added extra pressure and anxiety around deadlines, but the choice likely secured the success Half-Life enjoyed when the reimagined version was launched in 1998.Related:Fighting For Success In a Flawed SystemHarrington didnt just face troubles with development and deadlines, however. She quickly realized that Valve had bigger problems when dealing with Sierra Entertainment.Half-Life was a resounding success, with fans and reviewers celebrating its groundbreaking gameplay. Harrington was prepared to tackle a game of the year edition for Half-Life following awards and accolades when Sierra announced it was pulling all marketing for the game.We hadnt come close to making back our money, and with that move, we never would, Harrington explained. She marched back to Sierra and demanded they continue to push the marketing. At this point, Harrington had walked away from her job at Microsoft, and she and her whole team were completely dependent on the success of Half-Lifes sales.I left the office that day not knowing what Sierra would do, She said. Despite her fears, Sierra agreed to do the game of the year marketing push. Doing so turned it into a marketing juggernaut, with sales skyrocketing as the new edition hit the shelves.Related:The Madness Behind The MethodWhile Valves story sounds romantic and empowering, several elements struck a chord with me and left me wondering if the mentality behind the mega-companys inception was actually inspiring.At one point, Harrington recalled when a member of the Valve team needed to step away for a wedding. It wasnt something luxurious or planned, but an emergency to keep the persons partner from being deported.She explained that the team was so desperate they couldnt spare the person. Instead of granting the leave and working around the situation for the mental health and safety of the team member, Harrington recalled that they instead threw a wedding ceremony in the office.To some, this might sound cute, but to me, this illustrates a deeply unhealthy mentality that has been built into the foundation of the industry. Developers of all disciplines have been caught by messages (implied and otherwise) that sacrifice is the key to success. Weve all put in long nights, skipped vacations, gone in sick, or pushed ourselves to burnout to meet the demands of an industry moving at warp speed.When Harrington told this story, and continuously mentioned the demands she had for her team, I couldnt help but wonder, "Was it worth it?" Valves success today has brought so many players memorable titles, but do we remember or talk about the devs and programmers who gave up chunks of their lives so those games could exist?One thing is clear, after listening to Harrington: the sacrifices she and her team made were the key to Valves success.However, Id be curious to know if she and all those original team members truly felt it was worth it.

Hundreds of unionized workers at The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer ZeniMax Media have voted to authorise a strike.The bargaining unitrepresented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Locals 2100, 2108, and 6215 (ZeniMax Workers United-CWA)is priming for strike action following two years of contract negations with ZeniMax parent company Microsoft.Should those negotiations fall through, ZeniMax Workers United-CWA leaders will now have the power to call for a strike.Members of the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee are attempting to secure better wages, workplace improvements, and robust remote work options.They also want Microsoft to address key concerns, such as its decision to replace in-house quality assurance staffers with outsourced labor without notifying the union. The latter incident resulted in the CWA filing an unfair labor practice against Microsoft and strike action from ZeniMax Workers United-CWA.One union member suggested Microsoft and ZeniMax remain "unwilling" to meet their demands."Underpayment and costly RTO initiatives have caused many of us to put our lives on pause because our income does not match even the rising cost of living in the cities where ZeniMax insists we live and work to maintain employment," said ZeniMax Workers United-CWA Local 6215 Member and senior QA tester Zachary Armstrong.Related:"None of us wishes it had come to this, but if Microsoft and ZeniMax continue to demonstrate at the bargaining table that theyre unwilling to pay us fair wages for the value our labor provides to our games, well be showing them just how valuable our labor is."Fellow union member and associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield said workers at Microsoft and ZeniMax have been continuously fighting for the "bare minimum.""Paying your employees a livable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing; however when addressed at the bargaining table, Microsoft acts as though were asking for too much," they continued.Litchfield added that in-house ZeniMax contractors have been plying their trade on "minimal wages with no benefits, including no paid sick time," leaving them unable to plan for the future due to a lack of financial security.ZeniMax Workers United-CWA was formed in 2023 after a supermajority of over 300 quality assurance workers voted to unionize. Later that year, Microsoft agreed to incorporate some contract workers into the union.Other unions have assembled at Microsoft following its merger with Activision Blizzard, including a wall-to-wall union comprising over 500 employees at Blizzard Entertainment and another within ZeniMax Online Studios called ZOS United-CWA.Related:

Astra: Knights of Veda and Dungeon Stalkers publisher HYBE IM has raised $21 million to accelerate its business by leveraging K-pop artist IPs.The company said interest in its upcoming MMORPGs Architect: Land of Exile and Arkheron also drove interest in the deal.HYBE IM is a subsidiary of Korean entertainment company HYBE, a record label, talent agency, and music production company perhaps best known for managing immensely popular boyband BTS through its Big Hit label.HYBE has been making inroads into the video game industry through HYBE IM, which it established in 2022 to spearhead its development and publishing ambitions.The division previously secured an $80 million investment from the Makers Fund and other backers in 2024meaning it has now raised over $100 million to date.The latest funding round united previous investor IMM Investment with newcomers Shinhan Venture Investment and Daesung Private Equity.The cash will largely be used to bolster marketing, operations, and localization strategies to support the successful launch and live service operation of its titles.HYBE IM president Wooyong Chung said the company ultimately intends to "evolve beyond IP-based gaming and become a next-generation publisher delivering compelling content to gamers worldwide."Related:

Bryant Francis, Senior EditorApril 1, 20258 Min ReadImage via SAG-AFTRA.At a GlanceSAG-AFTRA is entering its second year of striking studios under the Interactive Media Bargaining agreement.In that time, it's signed over 120 studios to the "interim agreement" that provides protections against AI voice usage.Now the union is urging all developerseven non-struck onesto consider signing the agreement.A recent back-and-forth between Hades II developer Supergiant Games actor Marin M. Miller shone a spotlight on a growing question developers face as SAG-AFTRA's strike against games signed under the Interactive Media Agreement enters its second year. What, exactly, do studios not under the agreement owe the actors they work with?Though the union's sticking point in negotiations with the bargaining group that includes Electronic Arts, Activision, and Take-Two Interactive is centered on disagreements on terms covering generative AI, Miller and Supergiant's conflict derives from a bigger purpose: actors asserting that now more than ever, they want contract terms to be backed up by unions with the resources to enforce them if things go south.That's one of the many messages that SAG-AFTRA Interactive Negotiating Committee chair Sarah Elmaleh and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland hope developers are starting to hear. As the strike winds onward, the number of games being completed through under "side letter six" (the clause in the Agreement stating games that entered production before the strike are not officially struck) is dwindling down. That means publishers are eyeing casting needs for their next gameand actors, waiting for them to reach an agreement with the unionare looking for work with studios that hadn't previously signed any agreement.Related:On the surface, it's fair for a studio to ask why they would need a union contract. If they previously enjoyed a good relationship with an actor, and offered favorable terms, wouldn't that be enough?The answer, Crabtree-Ireland and Elmaleh said in an interview with Game Developer during the 2025 Game Developers Conference is "No."Why is the SAG-AFTRA strike still going?Studios hoping for the strike to resolve and for pressure to ease up any time soon might have a while to wait. According to Crabtree-Ireland, the nine companies that make up the game industry negotiating group can't agree with each other about "the basic principles that underly the AI protections we're looking for," he explained. "That hasn't been our experience with other bargaining groups."In case you need a reminder, Crabtree-Ireland fought that fight in 2023 during the SAG-AFTRA theatrical and television strike with the Producers Guild of America. "It took a minute to get there, but we made progress a lot faster toward that ultimate conclusion: informed consent, improved compensation, and parameters around generative AI use."To put his comments into context, with over 120 companies having signed the interim agreement, any members of the industry negotiating group that want to agree to SAG-AFTRA's terms are effectively being held back from casting union talent for new games. That means for however brief a window, smaller studios have a competitive edge against major industry players.Related:Which brings us back to the ongoing campaign by actors to secure interim agreements with their studio partners. As demonstrated in Marin's comments about Supergiant Games, more and more actors want "the very particular protections and strength of a union contract," Elmaleh said. "[The threat of AI] is new. It's unique, it's more serious than possibly any other threat we've faced as a community and that's really motivating people to recognize that the contract is special for many reasons, not only because of AI protections, but also the ability for a union to enforce those and...other protections in the contract" (Supergiant Games declined to comment after we reached out in advance of this story).If an actor enters a dispute with a developer (or third-party recording studio) over an individual contract, they have to pay their own lawyer to take it to court. If they enter a dispute over a union contract, their union dues pay for legal protection, among other benefits like health insurance, both of which carry over from job to job.Related:Elmaleh said that if one of your actors is asking for you to sign the contactto "go union"what they're saying is "this contract matters to me and these are my terms that I need to protect my career...I would love for you to sign this because this matters to me for self protection." She added that direct relationships between developers and SAG-AFTRA (as opposed to recording companies like the still-struck Formosa Interactive) allows the union to be "flexible" with the specific terms of the agreement.The realities of recastingTo the best of Game Developer's knowledge, none of the games struck by SAG-AFTRA have been recast with non-union talent. But games that aren't struck are a different story. Actors on games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zenless Zone Zero are among those who've been replacedsome of them stating they were recast after asking their employers to sign an interim agreement in exchange for their continued work.But as Canadian actor Humberly Gonzlez reminded us last year, the United States is not the only market for voice actors, and some games may employ actors from multiple territories covered by multiple unions to build the best possible cast. If the strike continues, could we see studios head overseas to fill gaps in productionespecially if they're in search of talent more willing to sign away their voice for generative AI use?That question has been on the lips of several voice actors Game Developer has spoken with in the last few months, with some pointing to a statement made by French voice actor Pascale Chemin saying her castmates on an unnamed game had been asked to sign a contract allowing for their voices to be used for generative AI by an unnamed publisher. (Pascale did not state which publisher or dubbing studio presented the contract, though she tagged the other actors in her Instagram postall of them are the French-language voices on Apex Legends. The tagged actors offer the only clue as to which game she was referring to).Chemin and her colleagues held the line against this unknown publisherbut will every actor do so? In every territory?"AI is a mandatory subject of bargaining, and that means you should not be circumventing or attempting to circumvent this process," Elmaleh said when asked about the possibility of currently-struck companies eyeing international replacements. Crabtree-Ireland agreed, saying it would be "reprehensible" for a company to go to such lengths to "foist unfair AI terms on performers.""You should expect to be called out not only by performers, but other fans too."He did say that that "there is no need" for any studio under the struck Interactive Media Agreement to take such steps. "More than 175 games and more than 50 percent of production earnings are covered under our interim or tiered independent agreements. It's entirely feasible to produce your game responsibly and under union contracts with fair AI protections."And as Chemin demonstrated, actors in other regions are willing to demonstrate solidarity if need be. As Crabtree-Ireland put it, "Most of the unions in other possible video game production jurisdictions have stated that they will fight against productions relocating to their jurisdictions to avoid the strike, not only out of solidarity but also because they don't want to work under unfair terms either."Worker protections are about more than legal termsGame development is a risky business and even salaried developers know their jobs are not the shining picture of stability. But by nature of the work, actors are in a more precarious position. Actors like Elmaleh hop from project to project as contractors, juggling the challenges that come with that life."It is a wild puzzle," she said when describing her relationship with the craft. When she's in the studio she needs to be able to keep a consistent performance that will allow a developer to seamlessly blend recordings from multiple days, a task that can be "potentially very athletic and flexible."In a post-GDC chat with Skin Deep developer Blendo Games, writer and narrative designer Laura Michet offered practical reasons for why the low-budget indie team went through the process of casting talent under the interim agreement through a third-party signatory. Blendo hasn't used voice acting in its previous games, and "I've worked with the union previously at some of my other jobs. I really love how everybody that you tend to get through there is very experienced," she said. "This is smooth sailing for them. There's no ambiguity, and they're very confident. It's always great to be in good hands when you're doing your first big game with [voice acting]."The union's standards, Elmaleh said, protect actors and offer stability they can rely on to keep themselves healthy and deliver high-quality work like the kind described by Michet.If developers prefer not to cast through a union agreement it's an actor's choice as to whether they want to keep working with that employer. But even if a studio has no legal obligations to the union, and believe that their choice to not sign a contract has limited consequences, Elmaleh argued there is still a bigger picture they need to consider. "You might feel like you're off in a corner, doing something on your own and doing things your own way, but you are part of a larger industry, and your games have an impact on people in that industry."For an example of the "impact" developers can have, let's return to Supergiant Games, a company that has produced inspiring, high-quality work with the help of voice acting talent. Hades was such a popular game that you can now find game mechanics and narrative systems inspired by the studio's work all over Steam.Inspiration takes many formsand the decision to work or not work with a given voice actor, or SAG-AFTRAmay send a message to other developers watching to see how their peers respond to the strike."It is an illusion to think that we don't impact each other," Elmaleh said. "That's not how this industry works."Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa.About the AuthorBryant FrancisSenior Editor, GameDeveloper.comBryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.See more from Bryant FrancisDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

TechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Embracer studio Eidos-Montreal has laid off 75 employeesEmbracer studio Eidos-Montreal has laid off 75 employeesThe Deus Ex developer explained the cuts were made with one of its mandates coming to an end.Chris Kerr, News EditorApril 1, 20251 Min ReadImage via Eidos-Montreal / EmbracerDeus Ex and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy developer Eidos-Montreal has laid off 75 workers.The Embracer-owned studio shared the news on Linkedin and explained the layoffs were made with one of its "mandates" coming to an end. It said the cuts are not a reflection of the "dedication or skills" of its workforce."Unfortunately, we don't have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services," added the company. "These very talented, highly experienced experts are going to enter the employment market, and we are working to support them through this transition."Eidos-Montreal said it remains committed to delivering its other in-development projects.Embracer, best known for torching a litany of studios and projects following an ill-fated M&A spree, purchased Eidos-Montreal alongside Square Enix Montreal and Crystal Dynamics.The Swedish conglomerate spent $300 million acquiring the trifecta from Square Enix in 2022. It also secured the rights to major franchises including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Cain.At the time, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said the company would help those studios "realie their ambitions."Around a year later, however, Embracer embarked upon a brutal restructuring program that resulted in mass layoffs, studio closures, project cancellations, and high-profile divestments.Related:That reorganization ended with Embracer splitting into three standalone entities to search for "winning formulas."The layoffs haven't subsided completely, though. Earlier this week, Embracer studio Crystal Dynamics made 17 workers redundant to meet its "current business needs."Read more about:Embracer GroupTop StoriesLayoffsAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Aron Garst, ContributorMarch 31, 20255 Min ReadVia Valve2023 gave Steam quite the scare. The premiere PC gaming marketplace saw a major downturn in revenue for new games, pushing Valve to put significant work into new features that would drive engagement and sales on the platform.Their main priority? Pushing developers to add demos and putting those demos in front of as many players as possible."In 2023, Valve actually made less money from new games, it actually declined," said game marketing strategist Chris Zukowski. "All of 2024 was them pushing out features, thinking that they needed to fix the issue. They Flooded the store with features that all focus on demos. Valve was saying, in not so subtle terms, that everyone needs to make a demo."Everything is demo orientedZukowski gave a talk on navigating these new Steam features at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. We sat down with him after the talk to dive into the topic in more detail. The main point of the talk was that demos are the key to getting discovered on Steam. It's natural, according to Zukowski, that interest in your game will have a greater chance at visibility if you give streamers a way to play."For most games, social media doesn't work," Zukowski said. "And the reason is streamers can play a demo. Streamers can't play a screenshot. They need the demo, and when they play it on stream, it brings their audience."Related:While the majority of the talk was focused on demos, Zukowski also elaborated on what else developers can do to get exposure for their demo and game. It involves launching a page, gathering some sort of audience, and then running a playtest in order to drum up interest. Developers only have one shot at releasing a demo and leaving a good impression, and a playtest can give them a chance to "iron out the kinks" according to Zukowski. He estimated, from extensive data, that 100 concurrent players may be the threshold to being discovered by the algorithm."The real revelation is that a demo launch is front page featuring now," Zukowski said. "It's big, but you have to have an existing audience and you have to have enough players simultaneously playing your demo for the Steam algorithm to put you on the front page."Zukowski was insistent that you can't just throw a game page up on Steam, launch a demo, and then expect success. It's not that easy for developers to get discovered in a marketplace that sees thousands of new games released every year."The playtest is like priming the pump," Zukowski said. "It's getting the pump working."Related:Zukowski brought up several specific examples of games using this method within the past year. Some had been near dormant for months, sometimes years, before running a playtest and then launching a demo. Those games' wishlist numbers shot up soon after.A common mentality: release demos close to a game launch, so that players could try the experience and have it be top-of-mind when the full game hits. Zukowski refutes that idea, saying that momentum doesn't play a role in smaller game launches. The games are so small that a big influx of players, especially a long way from launch, is better than trying to set up some sort of curated event around launch.The good, the bad, and the AI slopOne point brought up during Steam Next Fest was that these new demo and discovery features elevated almost every game who utilized the feature on Steam, including what some journalists called "AI slop.""Day one of Next Fest, everyone gets a certain amount of impressions," Zukowski said, adding that wishlist numbers will impact how many impressions a game may get at first. On day two, Zukowski pointed out that Steam had given visibility to everyone, including games many considered poor quality. "That's Steam giving everyone visibility."Steam's algorithm then gives certain games more of a boost based on impressions and other statistics. Games that don't get that attention will sink to the bottom, having wasted their chance at gaining players while showcased on the front page.Related:The system that Steam is using for demos is brand new. It's not even a year old in its current iteration. The main question that popped into my mind was, "How well with all this work in a few years after demos have flooded the store just as much as other games have?" Zukowski's answer was that discoverability isn't that much of an issue to begin with.He showed me a graph that he had removed from his talk, as it would "take too much time to explain" as part of his current presentation. It showed how many games were released per year on Steam and how many games of that number actually received more than 50 reviews.From 2019 to 2024, several thousands more games were released each year, culminating in over 18,000 games in 2024. However, only a little over 4,000 of those games actually received more than 50 reviews. The same went for every year, where only a fraction of the games released picked up any traction on Steam."I think the problem is that [...] a lot of people are making their first game. They don't know how to make the type of game the Steam audience likes, or aren't skilled enough, or it's just their first game. I think the biggest limiting factor is not visibility, Steam gives us a ton of visibility," Zukowksi said, adding that Steam players have a certain taste. "Demos give everyone a better chance to see these games and make a judgement."Read more about:GDC 2025Top StoriesFeaturesAbout the AuthorAron GarstContributorSee more from Aron GarstDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Much like the original Hellblade, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is a narrative action game that puts players in the perspective of Senua, a traumatized Celtic warrior with psychosis. As a game about learning to see reality and Senua's visions as one and the same, Hellblade II delivers an experience that utilizes unique visual and, most especially, audio effects that emphasize the protagonist's state of mind throughout her journey.During the 2025 Game Developers Conference, Ninja Theory principal sound designer Daniele Galante gave a detailed presentation on the sound design of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, and how the original game's innovative use of binaural audio was expanded for the sequel. In addition to breaking down how actors performed their sessions with binaural audio setups, the sound designer explained the challenges and benefits of heightened sound design for games.Creating a hallucinatory soundscapeDeveloper Ninja Theory has built quite a pedigree for crafting games with rich visual styles and impressive sound design. The original Hellblade received significant praise for not only being a game with a modest budget and scope but also for how the developers managed to push their resources to produce a visually stunning game with stellar audio design and clever use of binaural audio audio design that re-creates sound within a 3D space.Related:For Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Ninja Theory received more resources and a larger team to make a more high-end follow-up, and the sound design was one area that the developers wanted to improve upon. Throughout the game, Senua battles foes from rival clans and other unsettling foesbut her journey is fraught with visual and auditory hallucinations that turn her already dire circumstances into a harrowing ordeal. Ultimately, she uses her survival skills and perception to center herself, and by the game's end, she once again accepts herself and comes to terms with traumas.According to Galante, continuing with the use of binaural audio was necessary as it allowed them to help players get a better understanding of how individuals hear auditory hallucinations and to immerse them within Senua's perspective."Many people think that you hear [auditory hallucinations] inside your head, but that's not accurate." In most peoples' experiences, they hear voices around them, very much like how I'm speaking to you or when we talk to each other," said Galante. "Using binaural audio was an obvious choice because we want to reproduce these voices around the player to get them within this experience. On top of that, we can give our performers a very powerful tool, which is their body language movement. They usually cannot use it when they play video games. They have to stand in front of the mic, which is a powerful tool. They have to fill their performance with more emotion, and because of that, we found that actors with a theater background usually work very well with binaural audio."Related:As Galante explained with several videos in his presentation, the actors playing the Furies (Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalen)the voices that Senua hears throughout the game performed their lines while also moving around a Neumann KU 100 Binaural Dummy Head mic during the capture sessionstreating the mic as if it were Senua and both the player. The special mic simulates the average-sized head and captures sound in a 3D space, but Galante made a point to mention that the effectiveness of binaural audio tends to vary for some people, and he stressed the best way to experience the game's sound design is with headphones.Sound drives story, but story is kingOne note that Galante stressed was that the game's audio design had to serve the storytelling. For Hellblade II, the principal sound designer treated the binaural audio recordings from the actors as if it were an acoustic instrument. The reverb created from the performers' voices and the sound designers adjusting it in post-production with Visual Studio Technology (VST) helped put players in the state of mind that Senua was in.Related:The use of non-verbal voice capture to create eerie noises and other off-putting soundsproved especially important in helping to create an unsettling mood, all in service of Senua's perspective. Actor Edward Spence provided voice lines and non-verbal audio for a sequence where Senua travels through a sunken cave filled with the voices of the dead reaching out to her."Our voice is an extremely powerful instrument, and we should use it more when we do sound design," he said. "We also record nondialect stuff, so any possible noise you can make with your mouth is there because we want to be experimental and take it to the player's brain and make them feel uncomfortable. Because when we hear a voice that is not supposed to be there, that can make you feel weirded out by it."Image via Ninja Theory/Microsoft.Image via Ninja Theory/Microsoft.One of the major sequences in Ninja Theory's sequel was Seuna's confrontation with the Tyrantan emotionally challenging and brutal boss battle against the protagonist's father. To present this boss battle as a sequence where Senua confronts a major source of trauma and abuse in her life, the developers combined the voices of six different voice actors to make the voice of the Tyrant. They utilized the 3D audio effects to give the sequence an oppressive and all-consuming feel.Galante later stated that, despite the massive benefits of binaural audio for immersion, it also presents several challenges. In addition to being time-consuming to produce, extensive post-production work is required to ensure the binaural audio works in the game for general audiences. Most importantly, Galante stated you need to have a clear vision of what you want to do when recording, as 3D audio is set in stone.One mistake the Ninja Theory sound designer made came early into the making of the audio design for the Tyrant battle, and it was because the rest of the team didn't have a specific vision for what the fight would be like. When he revisited the first actor's recording following the team having a clearer idea of how the encounter would play out he found it wasn't quite suitable for the new concept, and he had to do the painstaking process of readjusting the 3D audio, which meant duplicating the track and inverting and altering the sound to make it work for the concept of six different actors providing voices for the sequence.Still, he remarked that binaural audio has tremendous advantages for immersing players in the game. Still, because there have not been many uses in the creative fields, it can be challenging to find a clear vision and roadmap for its uses, but he expressed that it was worth trying and that he hoped more developers would try to pursue it."For now, there's not much documentation regarding binaural audio on the creative side as it's mostly used for scientific purposes and not often in a creative field," said Galante. "So everything we did, we learned by making mistakes, and we did make mistakes along the way. Because of this, recording binaural audio can be quite an expensive part of our job. So what I'm sharing here is our experience, and what worked for us, and is not the rules set in stone, but hopefully, this can help some of you if you want to do some binaural recording [for your games]."

Discoverability is just as much of a challenge in the User Generated Content (UGC) space as it is on Steam, console marketplaces, and many other parts of the video game industry. Sometimes it can be seen as even more of a challenge on emerging platforms within games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Eggy Party. These platforms are still developing features that are commonplace on popular platforms in other mediums like YouTube and Twitch. Since these platforms also rely on user-submitted content, they can be defined as UGC platforms as well.How can UGC platforms learn from the functionality of YouTube and Twitch? Netase data mining engineer Xingchen Zhou explored the UGC landscape and the specific ways the Eggy Party developers have adjusted their recommendation system to appeal to its massive audience of players during a talk at the 2025 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.Eggy Party, according to Zhou, is the most "popular competitive casual game in China." The party game, which shares similarities with games like Stumble Guys and Fall Guys, surpassed 40 million daily active players during Lunar New Year in 2024. Eggy Party has surpassed 100 million user-created maps as of last March.Recommendation algorithms are key to UGC platformsRelated:Zhou covered a common thread among other UGC platforms outside games, arguing that their uniting element is an effective distribution system. He compared them to Vine, a popular short form video platform that shuttered at the beginning of 2017, saying the Twitter-operated video app failed due to its lack of "personalized recommendations and a lack of innovation" which led to a loss of content creators."TikTok, Google, Netflix, Spotfiy - having a strong distribution capability is key to achieving market leading position," Zhou said, also alluding to non-UGC platforms like Netflix. "They all share one advantage - a powerful distribution system with algorithmic recommendations."Games are far more complicated to distribute effectively than short videos. In a game like Eggy Party, players will need to play a map for at least 5 minutes in order to "truly experience a map," according to Zhou . Short videos only take a matter of seconds for a user to understand what they are watching, and then decide if they want to continue watching for the full duration of the video. Despite the difference, the main factors in the success of a UGC platform are similar."Although the product forms are different, the core always lies in the interaction and connection between users and the platform," Zhou said.Related:Zhou went into detail about Eggy Party's "digital DNA bank," which helped the platform create a portrait of players in "1000 dimensions." These portraits include thousands of tags that identify personal attributes of players, including what sort of content they enjoyed in the past and what they might enjoy in the future. Tags included a player wanting more challenging maps, multiplayer experiences, and genre-specific maps like puzzles.Outside a recommendation system, Zhou emphasized the importance of first impressions during discovery. The Eggy Party user interface includes titles, cover images, and statistical data highlighting the number of players and likes a map has at a moment's glance. Players need to get an idea of what a map is and how popular it is in seconds, making those first few moments in front a player crucial for success."High rated maps receive more exposure opportunities," Zhou said, talking about how player interaction is also important for discovery.Zhou also covered some mistakes the Eggy Party recommendation system made, including recommending what he called a "female-oriented dress up" map to male college students, which led to dissatisfaction for both the players and the creator.Related:Missteps like that can prevent creators from building more experiences for other players and can dissuade players from using a games' built in recommendation systems, both problems that could harm the overall health and reputation of a UGC platform.Eggy Party's recommendation system can also lead to rapid success. Zhou pointed out another use case where a creator had a critically low player count on their maps, but integration within the system led players who enjoyed similar maps to this specific user. It led to a huge uptick in interactions with players.NetEase has been running an incentive program that rewards players who create popular with cash prizes, which has brought in a large number of creators to their UGC environment. Zhou didn't bring this up during the talk, but did mention the importance of not falling into the trap of the "Matthew Effect," which refers to certain users gaining an advantage over others, leading to a wider gap between those who have resources and those who do not.That result has become common on some UGC platforms, where some users have the advantage of more time in the space, publisher favoritism, monetary resources, or something else giving them a leg up on the competition. Creating a system that can bypass any of those advantages and lead players to maps they would enjoy naturally is a key to success.

EA's former senior director of global commercial strategy Adolf Kristjansson is taking charge of Payday developer Starbreeze.The Starbreeze board confirmed Kristjansson will begin his tenure as CEO on April 1, 2025. The new boss will work to turn the company in to a "true multi-title studio."His appointment will see interim CEO Mats Juhl return to his role of chief financial officer.The news comes around a year after Starbreeze ousted then-CEO Tobias Sjgren with Payday 3 underperforming following a torrid launch.At the time, Starbreeze claimed it needed "different leadership" to bolster the performance of key franchises and execute on a strategy centred around "creating attractive games on our own and licensed IPs."The company board will hope Kristjanssonwho spent 13 years at EA working on franchises like FIFA, Battlefield, and Apex Legendscan rise to the challenge."I join Starbreeze with great enthusiasm for the companys current and future projects, not the least the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons title. I look forward to continuing the work of expanding the Payday franchise further and building Starbreeze into a true multi-title studio," said Kristjansson in a note to investors."Most of all, I look forward to working closely with our talented teams and engaging with our passionate player community as we build the next chapter of Starbreeze together."Related:Starbreeze recently suggested Payday 3 is on the road to recovery but recorded a full-year loss of $18.5 million during the full-year ended December 2024.That came after net sales associated with Payday 3 tumbled dramatically year-over-year.Starbreeze, however, feels the threequel and broader franchise will benefit from "brand extension" initiatives with PUBG and Roblox and a promotional campaign that saw it become the Monthly Game in February on PlayStation Plusletting subscribers claim it for free.

The milestone represents a new first-month sales record for developer and publisher Capcom.

TechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Myst developer Cyan Worlds has laid off half of its workforceMyst developer Cyan Worlds has laid off half of its workforce'Our sincere hope is to continue to be around.'Chris Kerr, News EditorMarch 31, 20251 Min ReadImage via Cyan WorldsMyst and Riven developer Cyan Worlds has laid off 12 employees after struggling to navigate "choppy waters."The studio shared the news on social media and explained the layoffs have impacted roughly half of its team."Industry conditions have forced us into a tricky spot where we are having to weigh the future of our studio against the month-to-month realities of game development in 2025," reads a statement posted by Cyan leadership."Throughout the past year, we have been ultra-transparent with the entire Cyan team about the choppy waters we find ourselves in, as well as the dangers ahead. While the news of a layoff was not a surprise to the team, it was (and is) deeply saddening for all of us."Cyan said it has tried to "pad the landing" for those impacted by offering severance packages but implored other studios with vacancies to consider hiring its former employees.The studio is now focused on securing financing for its next project."We've been around for a very long time and have been through tough times before. Our sincere hope is to continue to be around, and to provide the types of experiences that only Cyan can deliver."Read more about:LayoffsTop StoriesAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Chris Kerr, News EditorMarch 31, 20252 Min ReadImage via AmazeAmaze founder and artistic director Thorsten S. Wiedemann is temporarily stepping down after violating the event's safe space policy and code of conduct.In a statement posted on the Amaze website, Wiedemann admitted to behaving unprofessionally at Amaze Sheffield in August 2024 by making offensive comments towards members of the production team and engaging in "non sexual-harassment under the influence of alcohol.""Reflecting on my actions, I recognize that I acted inappropriately and will take full responsibility," said Wiedemann. "I yelled at the production and organizing team when the party was shut down, which was completely disrespectful. I was verbally offensive towards a participating DJ and their music, which was uncalled for. I invaded others' personal space, which was inconsiderate and out of line."I deeply regret my behavior throughout the event and understand how it negatively impacted others. This was entirely wrong, and I am committed to learning from this experience to ensure it never happens again and try to repair what got broken."Wiedemann has vacated his position less than two months before Amaze Berlin is scheduled to begin on May 14, 2025.He will be stepping back from all public roles on a temporary basis while he begins therapy to address the "root causes" of his behavior. It's unclear when Wiedemann will return to the fold or in what capacity.Related:Amaze was established over a decade ago to shine a spotlight on arthouse games and other forms of playful media.As noted in the Amaze code of conduct, event organizers say they are "dedicated to providing a harassment-free social experience for everyone. They have also apologized for Wiedemann's "unacceptable" behavior."Our apologies go to all members of the Sheffield production, the performers, DJs, artists, venue workers and visitors who were affected by this. We wish to thank the people who came forward with this information to the A MAZE. / Berlin team and trust us with their concerns," they wrote.A raft of immediate and long-term changes will be implemented in response to Wiedemann's actions, including an organizational restructure designed to decentralize the decision-making process and efforts to make the code of conduct more visible.An updated emergency response structure will also be ushered in to provide a "clearer formal protocol and team structure to respond swiftly to any future incidents."About the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Large-scale open-world games give players options and the freedom to engage with the setting as they see fit. Mini-games are a common activity that helps players immerse themselves in the world and unwind. These types of activities offer some stand-alone fun, but for games like Star Wars Outlaws, they're aimed at feeding back into the tone of the game's space-traveling smuggler fantasy.At GDC 2025, Ubisoft Paris game designer Jean-Baptiste Siraudin took some time to detail the making of Sabacc, the Star Wars universe's take on poker. During the panel, Siraudin explained just what went into building the ruleset behind Outlaws' take on Sabacc, and how real-world playtesting and looking into Star Wars lore helped refine their spin on a mini-game aimed towards diegetic storytelling.Sleight of handAs one of the core mini-games found in Star Wars Outlaws, Sabacc gives players a chance to dive into the seedy, high-stakes experience of gambling with other scoundrels to score credits and fame. Sabacc has made notable appearances in live-action Star Wars media such as Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian, but Star Wars Outlaws features the most fleshed and immersive opportunity to engage.According to the designer behind the Sabacc mini-game, Star Wars Outlaws presented a new version of the game called Kessel Sabacc, adding a unique ruleset and more approachable take on the Star Wars universe's most popular game.Related:"The particular thing [about Kessel Sabacc] is that we didn't have to start from scratch, the game had the long-standing legacy, existing in all sorts of media, and there's Pazaak in [Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic], which is somewhat related to it," said the game designer. "But we also had the visible references from movies and shows like in Solo: A Star Wars Story. We also had our own inspiration, of course, to create this new variant of Sabacc that's somewhat like Blackjack in terms of its simplicity and emergent choices. We also took some inspiration from dice games like 421 and Yahtzee. So basically, simple games of chance, where you still have to make micro strategic decisions."Prototyping this iteration of Sabacc before introducing it into Outlaws took some time, but they found that much of the design work came from outside the game: on a normal table. Siraudin mentioned that by building up Kessel Sabacc, the developers repurposed standard playing cards and modified their rules on the fly to narrow down their game version."So the good thing about designing a card game is that it's super easy to prototype, you can actually do it with just normal cards, and so all of those rules and decisions were made with that kind of setup, and It made our iteration really, really fast," he said. "We play-tested each version, and we would change the ruleset in real-time because it was like, 'Okay, this sucks now, let's change that.' We chose the version that we felt confident of this ruleset's inherent fun and simplicity, but it still lacked depth and strategy. We introduced shift tokens, which are action cards and a nod to the previous ruleset which included a similar shift mechanic."Related:Living that Scoundrel LifeOnce the core mechanics of Kessel Sabacc were complete, the developers began work on building up the other features and the experiencewhich was about getting players to feel like a proper scoundrel. The developers' approach to presenting Kessel Sabacc within the game world was to use diegetic storytelling and presentation to properly immerse players in the setting and get them in the mood.As the designer explained in the panel, "We want Sabacc to be part of the underworld, and especially have it fit that theme, which meant for us various degrees of discoverability."When playing Kessel Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws, protagonist Kay and her tiny companion Nix join a table and face other playerswithin the game world rather than transporting players to a separate screen or isolated space. This adds a cinematic feeling to the mini-game and makes playerss aware of the other players and their cards, as cheating and bluffing is a major part of the game. Players can even call upon their companion to sneak around the table to peek at the cards of rival playersat the risk of being seen and subsequently placed under suspicion for the rest of the round.Related:Given the nature of Kessel Sabacc and the scoundrel fantasy, it was quite appropriate to learn that the developers also played a trick on players when presenting the game. According to Siraudin, Kessel Sabacc is a 2D game, with a UI placed over the animated visuals of the scoundrels sitting at their tableall with the goal of adding a heightened sense of clarity and immersion for the mini-game."We knew that in the long run, it would benefit us [to make the pace faster] because players would be willing to engage a bit more with this activity," said Siraudin. "We talked about the game, but it's time to reveal the truth because Sabacc is actually a 2D game. Why do I say that? Because all of the gameplay and interactions you see in the game are actually on the UI layer, on top of everything else. I often said that Sabacc is truly a 2D game, which is really cool. [...] I focused on two main ideas for the UI design: the idea of it being a toy and the importance of players feeling responsive and fidgeting with it. Also, focus on clarity to create context for every choice you make."Upon release, Star Wars Outlaws earned a lot of praise for its side activities, which included the Kessel Sabacc mini-game and its underworld experience. The developers felt proud of accomplishing that, which Siraudin said was worth the effort."It was extremely difficult to get there, but I think it really paid off for us, and especially when the game was released," he said. "We saw many people online were trying to recreate their own setup, printing tokens and stuff like that. So that's when we knew that we really succeeded."

Danielle Riendeau, Editor-in-ChiefMarch 28, 20252 Min ReadImage via UbisoftUbisoft has just announced its latest "transformation" by starting up a new subsidiary for some of its biggest and most battle-tested franchises. Confirming the whispers earlier in the month, the new company (as yet unnamed) comes with an investment of a cool 1.16bn (around $1.25 billion USD) from Chinese conglomerate Tencent, which will own a minority stake.In an announcement, Ubisoft noted the new subsidiary will focus on "building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform." It expects the infusion of cash to bolster its creative and commercial prospects, increasing "quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touch points, and integrate more social features."Ubisoft will reportedly keep on trucking on games from other Tom Clancy properties, like the Division and Ghost Recon, both noted specifically in the statement. No other franchises were discussed.Ubisoft's march toward "agility and ambition""Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history, said cofounder and CEO Yves Guillemot via press release. As we accelerate the companys transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisofts operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.Related:With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems, he continued.Towards the end of the release, a few details emerged regarding current teams working on the three properties in question. The new subsidiary will include the teams currently working on Tom Clancys Rainbow Six, Assassins Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montral, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, and will include back catalogue and new games for those properties going forward.Like most major publishers, Ubisoft has had a tumultuous run in the last couple of years. Earlier in 2025, it finished a series of studio closures and mass layoffs by letting go of its team in Leamington. Last year, the publisher cut jobs at its Cary and San Francisco offices as well as on its global publishing team.Related:Read more about:UbisoftTop StoriesAbout the AuthorDanielle RiendeauEditor-in-Chief, GameDeveloper.comDanielle is the editor-in-chief of Game Developer, with previous editorial posts at Fanbyte, VICE, and Polygon. Shes also a lecturer in game design at the Berklee College of Music, and a hobbyist game developer in her spare time.See more from Danielle RiendeauDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize independent game developers advancing the medium. This year, Game Developer sat down with the finalists for the IGFs Nuovo and Grand Prize nominees ahead of GDC to explore the themes, design decisions, and tools behind each entry. Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa.Thank Goodness Youre Here sets players free to take in the sights and meet the locals of the Northern English town of Barnsworth, taking on ridiculous odd jobs and enjoying (or slapping) the absurd people and things you come across.Game Developer caught up with Will Todd and James Carbutt, creators of the multi-IGF Award nominated title, to chat about the challenges that come with creating an entire city filled with silly people and funny things to do, what appealed to them about making the player interact with things by slapping them, and the complexities of creating the sound and musical style so it didnt take away from the experience.Who are you, and what was your role in developing Thank Goodness You're Here?We are Will and James, the creative duo behind Thank Goodness Youre Here! James does the silly pictures and the music and Will does all the work (on the computer). We write everything together and voice a couple of characters each, too.Related:What's your background in making games?Will studied game design at Uni whereas James comes from an animation background. Really, neither of us have professional experience in the industry; we just got together one weekend and decided to make something fun. It has been the longest weekend of our lives.How did you come up with the concept for Thank Goodness You're Here?It was more a case of slowly arriving at it. The original 'next game' idea we had after The Good Time Garden was very different and didn't have a central player character and or specific location, being more focused on a visual style and loose concepts we wanted to explore. When we sat down to 'design' it, the characters naturally had our tone of voice (and accents), so the whole thing shifted gradually towards being set in a Northern English town and having a focus on the quirks and colloquialisms of that place.What development tools were used to build your game?We used Unity for the engine, Photoshop for the pictures, and Fmod for the noises.The town of Barnsworth is filled with all sorts of wild, wacky people who have things for you to do (or at least promise some sort of silly interaction). What challenges did you face in creating an entire city crammed full of silly things to do and funny people to meet?Related:To be honest, the most difficult part is deciding how you actually interact with the characters. Because the player character serves as a kind of straight man for the comedy, it was difficult to know when their interactions with the townsfolk felt too involved. Also, because of the fairly flat visual presentation, it was tough to signal to the player who and what is important in a scene at any given moment. I think we circumnavigated this issue by making the whole thing a sort of send up of fetch quests, which meant we could be fairly hamfisted with 'briefing' the player.Also, it was hard (and dumb!) to draw that many characters without reusing any assets.What was your process for creating a character and the funny things that would happen around them? Your process for cramming similar humor into the player's interactions with the world and the things they see in it?Our approach to development is comedy first, and then tease out 'gameplay' from those bits. So, it usually involves us both drinking 4 tins of Stella a piece and screaming obscenities in a room until one of us says something funny (usually Will). We write good stuff in the pub. But then sometimes there might be a particular visual composition wed like to explore, or a particular setting, and things are built out from there.Related:What thoughts went into the game's art style? What drew you to this animated, playful style? How did you create an art style that seems designed to enhance the humor of the game? That also made some of the more unsettling or gross elements just feel light and fun?The artwork is just James style so it didnt go through a ton of development because it was already developed. In many ways, the game serves the art style rather than the other way around. It would be a very different, probably more restrictive, experience if everything was written up top and then an artist came in and brought it to life.What drew you to have the slap/smack be the main way of interacting with things in the game's world?This was a hangover from our first exploration into games, The Good Time Garden, a short surreal interactive experience we made around our day jobs. We knew we wanted quite a pure gameplay experience, (no UI, no dialogue boxes, no complicated control scheme), and, as we knew there wouldnt be any gameplay in the traditional sense, it made sense to find a non-diegetic interactive button. Slap was the simplest and funniest.What thoughts went into the music, sound effects, and voices that would further increase the fun and humor? How did you make this game sound fun and appealing with these elements?For the sound, we worked with some lovely folks from A Shell in the Pit, and together we decided that the visual style and tone of voice of the game spoke for themselves, so it was funnier to make the SFX more realistic rather than slapstick. Similarly, the ambience is quite true to life, which hopefully grounds the player a little among the chaos.The music was difficult, if it was too sentimental it undermined the comedy and left some of the scenes feeling a bit too tragic, but if it was too upbeat we were in danger of things feeling corny. Hopefully we found a nice balance. Its a bit of a blend between old British Music Hall stuff, Brass Bands, and a little Rocksteady.A great deal of effort must go into the animations and creating so many layered jokes throughout the world. How did you keep this game's scope from spiraling out of control as you created more and more layers to it? How did you keep things focused and keep your capabilities as a team in mind while creating the game?This being our first proper project meant we were both dramatically under-qualified, but also stupid enough to think we could deliver, which I suppose we did, albeit 3 years over schedule. But that meant that we didnt really have a clue what the game was going to look like until right near the end. It meant the games scope fluctuated massively throughout development, and it was a real struggle to nail down a coherent story or narrative.Difficulties arose because the whole thing is functionally a sketch show you can play, but without the luxury of being able to cut to a completely new scene/time/location at a whim. Instead, we had to write a sketch show, and then figure out a way for the viewer to travel between sketches in a consistent, intuitive, but still entertaining, way. Also, the player is part of the sketch show, also the whole things animated, also the player can walk away from the sketches and decide instead to slap a bin basically whenever they want. Nightmare.Anyway, towards the end of the project we really started to get a handle on what was important and found the balance between bin slapping and bits.

Obsidian Entertainment's Pentiment was one of the developer's most unorthodox role-playing games, a 2D detective story in an illustrated book set in 16th-century Bavaria. While Pentiment didn't have the massive scope of the dev's other titles like Fallout: New Vegas or the most recent Avowed, the game's director did have one particular vision for the game's storytelling that required a significant amount of convincing to get the team on boardand that was with how the fonts would look in-game.During GDC 2025, game director Joshua Sawyer (previously helming Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity) spoke about his work conceptualizing and building Pentiment's approach to text-based storytelling and how the game's fonts needed more than static characters in speech bubbles to authentically depict an evolving game world with different cultures via a "typographic voice."Rats, horse testicles, and fontsOR: How to go the extra mile with your gameAt Sawyer's panel, titled "Justifying Absurd Expenditures on Fonts and Other Silly Features," he broke down some common struggles developers tend to fall into when trying to deliver a product. In many cases, developers tend to provide a game that is seen as a "minimum viable product," especially at first. which is a game with baseline features and nothing particularly noteworthy. Another approach is to elevate the concept go for the "maximum viable product."Related:Some examples he included were A Plague Tale's dynamic, fully animated rat swarms, which appear like a living mass to players. In another example, Sawyer brought up Red Dead Redemption 2's infamous horse testicles, which shrink when riding in cold climates. As Sawyer put it, adding these featureswhich aren't always vital for a gamedo a lot to elevate the experience into something more."What about the maximum viable product? It's way more than what's needed, you got every bell and whistleyou're inventing bells and whistles, and you're trying to elevate the experience through a type of unique maximalism that hasn't been seen [in a game]," said Sawyer.Following the above, Sawyer explained his vision for Pentiment, a 16th-century European detective game where players must read and analyze intent and meaning from character interactions to make critical choices. Inspired by games like 80 Days and Night in the Woods, Pentiment's unique approach to storytelling highlights its dynamic text presentation, featuring animated medieval-era typography that's unique for each interaction and NPC. This gives Pentiment a feeling that you're looking into a living medieval-era painting or illustrated tome that's being created as you gowhich Sawyer stated was to depict the "physicality of writing in books."Related:Depending on your choices and the protagonist Andreas's growth, the game's approach to text will evolve and shift over the course of the game. As the game director described it, being passionate about a feature is the first step of getting your concept off the ground, but the following steps include getting your team on board with the idea and then bringing it to life in a compelling waywhich present unique challenges all their own."One of many problems is that there were [letter] character set issues, so these might have supported the languages they originally came from," said Sawyer. "For example, many of the [characters] came from German or Swiss sources; while they might have been clear, they didn't have the characters that might be needed in Polish or Spanish or French or anything else. So that was tricky. Also, if they looked authentic [to the era], they were often quite difficult to read. Yes, we wanted them to look authentic, but the difficult-to-read part is not good for a game full of text."What's in a font?Related:Sawyer described Pentiment as "not a small game, but not an 'indie' game"given that it had support from Microsoft Game Studios. With over three years in development and a team of 13 by the end of production, it was a modestly sized game, but Sawyer's ideas for using dynamic typography for its storytelling presented a wrinkle that took time to work out.What sets Pentiment apart from other reading-dense RPGs like Disco Elysium or Pillars of the Earth is how it makes the act of readingand viewing the texta part of the experience. You essentially become a medieval-era detective. This was a part of the core vision of Pentiment, in that 16th century Bavaria was a melting pot of different cultures and social classes, and protagonist Andreas must be able to navigate a diverse society with unique characters who have different philosophies and worldviews, all reflected in the font-style.To build out the whole suite of custom typography, the developers contacted Lettermatic founder Riley Cran. Working with Cran's company, they designed the game's six custom fontsPeasant, Cursive, Humanist, Printed, Textura, and Thread Puller. Creating each fontaiming for authenticity rather than total accuracy allowed the developers greater control over the text, at the cost of being time-consuming. Sawyer recommended that devs try to create their fonts to own it, but only if they have the resources and means to do so."The control you have with the fonts is unparalleled, it's fantastic," he said. "You can get exactly what you need; you can get support for any localization you want, and it's your font. You don't have to worry about ongoing licensing issues and all that sort of nonsense. We eventually released our fonts for basically free to the public, and they use it for making shit posts and memes, which is the highest point of it."Another vital resource that Obsidian Entertainment relied on was the accessibility teams at Microsoft, who helped hone the visual presentation of the text for readers of all kinds and text related to specific cultures. Sawyer cited some instances where the game touched on specific topics, and Microsoft sensitivity readers offered feedback to help refine it further.One method that Sawyer suggested to elevate the look of the text and give it a dynamic feel was the stroke-by-stroke illustration of letters in real-time, which he noted wasn't exactly met with enthusiasm from the team. "So when I brought up stroke-by-stroke rendering to the team, it wasn't that people hated the idea, but there was skepticism about it," said Sawyer. Eventually, the engineering teamopting out of his initial pitch of using different alpha channels to similar motionused his concept and built it with Adobe Illustrator, applying gradients and animation to recreate real-time illustrative pen strokes on parchment.Sell your visionSawyer concluded the talk by giving attendees tips on how to best present their concepts to their teams. For Pentiment, the dynamic text and fonts showcased a level of authenticity for the game's setting and concept of playing within a living booksomething that Sawyer admitted took effort to get right."It is not enough for you alone to believe in this missionthe team does have to believe in this vision as well," said Sawyer. "The vision also has to include a plan, which will make people feel somewhat more confident in the idea that you are giving them. If you succeed with the core features, people will be more confident and happier about the idea of doing other things related to it."The decision to go the extra mile was worth it as Pentiment is widely regarded as one of Obsidian Entertainment's best games. All it took to help the game reach its success and elevate its concept was coming up with an idea that seemed far-fetched, but ultimately worth the effort.

Bryant Francis, Senior EditorMarch 27, 20257 Min ReadImage via Square Enix.At a GlanceIn her GDC 2025 talk, game writer Alexa Ray Corriea explains why developers should embrace "babygirls, pookies, and himbos."Okay for this to make sense, I need you to understand what a "babygirl" is. A babygirl is, as writer and narrative designer Alexa Ray Corriea explained in her 2025 Game Developers Conference talk, a character that everyone can agree is "a little bit traumatized," but secure in their masculinity, attractive, sensitive, and vulnerable, but not weak. He's probably over the age of 25, and may have "soft reasons to make hard decisions." Corriea's example was Clive from Final Fantasy XVI.Still with me? Good, let's talk about a "woobie." A woobie refers to a villainous or morally grey character who fans are inspired to "care for or comfort" amid all the terrible things happening to them. Do not confuse a woobie with a "meow meow," as a meow meow refers to a more heroic character you might want to just give a big hug. If that one's confusing, think about the difference between Waluigi (woobie) and Luigi (meow meow).Oh no, there are so many phrases left to cover. A "girl failure" is a female character who seems to have their life together but absolutely does not (Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion). Then there's the handsome older male characters you'd say are a "daddy" or "zaddy," and last but absolutely not least there's the handsome-but-well-meaning "himbo." These words all describe a new genre of character tropes defined by fans and popularized on platforms like Tumblr and Ao3.Related:Why should developers care about these magnificent words? Well let's get down to brass tacks. It's common knowledge that if you want players to give a shit about your game's story, you need strong characters. But after 40 or so years of great narrative games, a lot of the classic tropes have been well-worn out and we all get a bit exhausted when a narrative director pulls out his copy of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey again.Corriea's argument is that these fandom phrases are the secret to juicing up your game. How? Some of it's about the dataand some of it's about freeing your creativity from a box of shame.Fans. Love. These. Tropes.Data-hungry developers deserve a little guidance here. Ao3 (which stands for "Archive Of Our Own"), for the un-indoctrinated, is a successor to fanfiction.net, and is now the de facto home of fanfiction in the world wide web. It is also, it turns out, a useful barometer for assessing which characters are most popular in a beloved video game. Corriea showed a list of the top "shipping" categories of 2024 (shipping, another fandom phrase, refers to pairing characters up in fanfiction whether they're a canon couple or not), and pointed out that five fanfiction romances from Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 ranked in the top 100 of all submitted projects in 2024. Astarion and the player character clocked in at the fourth-most popular category, while the "Dark Urge" version of the player character and the villain Enver Gortash ranked at number 85, if you want a sense of the spread.Related:"These characters are like six years old," she said (referring to the 2019 Early Access launch of Baldur's Gate 3). "That lasting power really means something," she said. "Looking at how your fan base is consuming your game, or how your players are consuming other games you admire...can help with your own character ideation phase."She also revealed that an unexpectedly popular entry on the Ao3 2024 shipping rankings was...Soap McTavish and "Ghost" from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. "When I was in the writer's room on Call of Duty, we wanted to make this canon, and they wouldn't let us," she said. "So thanks a lot Activision."Image via Ash Poprik.Image via Ash Poprik.But before you run off and start dumping all of Ao3's data into a spreadsheet to quantify the most potent pairing you could conceive (I know some of you are already trying this don't hide from me), take a quick breather. There is one side effect to this fandom-led phenomenon that has a nasty side effect: the perpetuation of "toxic fandom."Related:Developers are quite familiar with toxic fandom, as it unfortunately drives harassment across the business. But when swimming in these waters, fans sometimes develop unhealthy attachments to characters and may lash out at other players or developers if their favorite character isn't portrayed in the way you like. "I'm not telling you to listen to toxic fandom culture that's still a huge problem across our industry...this is about having a dialogue with your fandom, and not letting yourself being run by it."She also added that with younger generations of developers emerging from the primordial ooze of fandom, there are going to be more game industry professionals who speak this language. "You're going to start having these conversations a lot, hearing this kind of talk in your writer's room, because that's a part of our culture. Those fandoms brought us into this line of work, and it's good form to keep up and know how to meet them halfway."And pop culture has already nudged the shape of the game industry in small ways. The X (formerly Twitter) account called "Can you pet the dog?" launched hundreds of pettable animal video games in game development.Those were the "practical" takeaways from Corriea's talkthe kind you might bring into a big meeting when you have to convince leadership that you've only gone a little bit feral in your corner of the office. But if we only limit ourselves to the practical, we risk burying these tropes in the same graveyard as "the grizzled war veteran" or "the talented female sidekick who is somehow shown up by the main character."If you truly want to tap into the power of these tropes, you must learn to set yourself free.Embrace cringe, be vulnerable"For an artist to become overly cerebral is to become crippled. This is not to say that artists lack rigor, rather that artistic rigor is grounded differently than intellectual life usually admits."The above quote comes from Julia Cameron's 1992 book The Artist's Way, and is a quote Corriea said she regularly thinks about. When she thinks about it, she recalls advice from one mentor who told her to "write from the hip," slinging out ideas with the speed of a classic cowboy gunslinger. Another told her to "write the unhinged thing, because you never know who will identify with that." All three quotes are, in one way or another, a call for creatives to write deeply from their instincts. To do that, you need to fight your way past an emotion holding any creative person back: "cringe."The verb "cringe" has become popularized as a noun and adjective, describing an emotion mixing shame and embarrassment tied to social awkwardness. Lusting publicly for fictional characters can sometimes be "cringe." Telling your development peers about the hours spent making a playlist for your game's protagonist might be "cringe." Regularly waxing on at length about Star Wars on a B2B website read by game industry professionals might also be "cringe.""Embrace cringe," reads one of end of the internet. "Please, no more embracing your cringe," says another. "Climb cringe mountain," commanded Corriea. Whichever choice you make it's easy to agree that cringe is, one way or another, about emotions or actions someone else may perceive as awkwardor even laugh at you for expressing. If you're uncomfortable with being "cringe," you might revert to safer emotional behavior, something more familiar, something you think will keep people from laughing at you or mocking you.Sometimes that's a business-driven instinct. If you fear you're taking too many risks with a new type of gameplay, you'd be forgiven for thinking you need a conventional plot with conventional characters to not alienate the player.But that line of thinking can also be your undoing. The fear that no one will resonate with your strange ideas can be what makes your game not very interesting."The beautiful thing about art, and the thing that we so often forget when we're making art, is that people will find meaning in just about anything. When we are creating, what we are creating will resonate with different people on different levels. It's all valid," said Corriea.And if you can't be vulnerableor "cringe"around your collaborators, how will you help them make games that connect with those players? "This is all still fun," Corriea reminded the audience in her closing remarks."We make games. We need to remember that under all of this capitalism, we are still having fun."Read more about:GDC 2025FeaturesInterviewsTop StoriesAbout the AuthorBryant FrancisSenior Editor, GameDeveloper.comBryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.See more from Bryant FrancisDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Nintendo has launched a new smartphone application called Nintendo Today to communicate directly with players.The app was announced by Shigeru Miyamoto during a bumper Nintendo Direct and is billed as a "new channel based on the concept of delivering information to [players] directly."Miyamoto said the application will function like a "daily calendar" that allows users to plan ahead for events such as Nintendo Direct presentations and game releases.It will also feature other content such as news, comics, wallpapers, and homescreen widgets spotlighting Nintendo characters and franchises.Following the Nintendo Switch 2 showcase on April 2, 2025, news about the upcoming console will be funnelled to users "daily and directly" through Nintendo Today.Nintendo Today will be available to download on compatible iOS and Android smart devices later today.It's an interesting move from Nintendo that could allow the company to establish and maintain a clear line of communication with consumers.Nintendo Today will be accessible to anybody with a Nintendo Account.Nintendo continues to experiment with how it can engage players and fans beyond the confines of the console ecosystem. Last year, the company debuted the Nintendo Music streaming application to let players listen to tunes from major series like Animal Crossing and Super Marioalbeit without proper crediting.Related:It also released an alarm clock dubbed 'Alarmo' in October 2024 to help those with a penchant for hitting snooze "wake up to a world of games."New virtual game cards will help Switch owners share digital titlesAs well as debuting new footage from Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and Rhythm Heaven Groove, Nintendo also unveiled the virtual game card.The new feature can be used to manage and share purchased digital titles in a similar way to physical releases. For instance, players who leverage the feature will be able to lend digital titles to another player or system tied to a Nintendo account."Similar in concept to moving physical game cards between systems, virtual game cards make it possible to 'eject' a purchased digital title from one Nintendo Switch system and 'load' it onto anotherwhether it belongs to a member of the same Nintendo Account family group, or a second system tied to your account," reads an explainer."This optional feature allows you to view virtual game cards or eject them from your system. The digital game can also be lent to a Nintendo Account family group members system via local wireless connection."Related:Games that have been lent to another family group member will be automatically returned after two weeks. Virtual Game Cards will be available on Nintendo Switch in April, but will also be heading to the Nintendo Switch 2 at launch.

Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has laid off 17 employees.The Embracer-owned studio said the layoffs are "not a reflection of the dedication or ability of those affected" but will help the company realign to meet its "current business needs.""We recognize how painful this outcome is for those impacted and we are supporting them with transition packages and opportunity outreach," reads a brief statement shared on Linkedin."Crystal Dynamics remains committed to pushing the boundaries of making great games. This change does not alter our current project plans."It's unclear whether any specific projects or departments have been impacted by the cuts.Crystal Dynamics is currently working on the next entry in the Tomb Raider franchise, which is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and will be published by Amazon Games.It would represent the first major release for the studio since it was acquired by Swedish conglomerate and layoff merchant Embracer Group in 2022.The studio is also co-developing the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot alongside The Initiative.Embracer purchased Crystal Dynamics from Square Enix alongside other studios including Eidos-Montreal, Square Enix Montreal in a deal worth $300 million. It also bought the rights to key franchises like Deus Ex, Thief, and Tomb Raider.Related:After completing that deal, Embracer embarked upon a widespread restructuring program that resulted in mass layoffs, studio closures, notable divestments, and project cancellations.That seemingly included a round of job cuts at Crystal Dynamics in 2023.Game Developer has reached out to Embracer for more information about the latest redundancies.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has partnered with mobile publisher Scopely to develop a new title based on one of its existing franchises.That's the very same Scopely that just purchased the video game business of Pokemon Go developer Niantic for $3.5 billion.The Polish studio shared the news in its latest fiscal report but didn't specify which intellectual property the mystery title will leverage.It's a collaboration that comes off the back of "solid" full-year earnings for CD Projekt, which saw consolidated net sales reach 985 million PLN ($253.7 million) in 2024down by 20 percent on 2023.The company delivered net profit of 470 million PLN ($121.1 million) over that same periodrepresenting a year-over-year decrease of 2 percent.CD Projekt was bullish about those results and described 2024 as an "excellent year" driven by the performance of catalog title Cyberpunk 2077 in the absence of a major new release.Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold over 30 million copies in under five years. High-profile expansion Phantom Liberty has eclipsed 8 million sales worldwide in roughly 18 months."Naturally, the results of the CD Projekt Group are primarily driven by sales of Cyberpunk 2077: the base game, along with its Phantom Liberty expansion, generated nearly 600 million PLN in earnings," said CD Projekt CFO, Piotr Nielubowicz, in a press release.Related:"For its part, The Witcher 3despite 10 years having passed since its releasecontinues to attract attention and produces a stable revenue stream. We are very satisfied with the fact that, even in the absence of any major launch, the past year was the third best in the Groups history in terms of net profit."Looking to the future, CD Projekt said The Witcher 4 has entered full production. There are currently 411 employees working on the sequel, representing the vast majority of the company's headcount.The studio's nascent Cyberpunk sequel, codenamed Project Orion, is currently being conceptualized by a team of 84 employees.Project Hadar, billed as a new franchise, remains in the "IP concept phase" under the stewardship of 17 staffers. Project Sirius, a multiplayer The Witcher spinoff from internal studio The Molasses Flood, is in pre-production after being rebooted. 49 people are working on the project.

A supermajority of user research workers at Activision have voted to unionize under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) banner.The CWA confirmed the news in a press release and explained those workers will become members of CWA Local 9400. Microsoft has recognized the union, which has named itself Activision User Research Union-CWA.Activision User Research Union-CWA is hoping to secure higher wages, job security and protections amid rampant layoffs, and transparency around promotions and career advancement.It has become the first union formed by video game user researchersbut joins a number of others that have emerged at Microsoft after the company signed a labor neutrality agreement with the CWA."We are excited to join our fellow game makers across the video game industry to show whats possible when workers can freely build solidarity in the workplace," said organizing committee member and quantitative user researcher Nicolaas VanMeerten. "Many of us were mobilized to do something about the layoffs in 2023 and 2024, and now we can look out for each other with a union."CWA Local 9400 president Maurice Washington said it's critical that workers in the game industry have a "protected voice" to ensure they can fight for their fair share.Related:"We are proud to welcome these workers to CWA and are looking forward to meeting Microsoft at the bargaining table to secure a fair union contract," they added.The news caps a remarkable few days for unionizing workers in the game industry. United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA) broke cover at GDC 2025 last week to fight for "dignity and respect."The union attracted 100 new members within hours of launching and has now welcomed over 350 due-paying members into its ranks.As a direct-join union, UVW-CWA is open to contractors, freelancers, and developers directly impacted by layoffs. It's a setup the union hopes will enable industry-wide reform by uniting swathes of developers across the U.S. and Canada."Industry bosses have shown time and time again that they will choose the siren call of profit over uplifting workers or doing whats right," said UVW-CWA last week. "Now is the time to stand with your peers, and fight for the dignity and respect you deserve."

Aron Garst, ContributorMarch 25, 20254 Min ReadVia Pexels user ANTONI SHKRABA productionThe game industryalong with a major part of the American workforceis in a bad place at the moment. We've seen a huge amount of workers, both creative, administrative, and technical, suffer massive layoffs and restructurings. Even the teams behind hugely successive gameslike the Seattle-based team responsible for part of Marvel Rivalshave been laid off.That's part of the reason why Retora Games founder and adjunct professor Tyler Coleman has been creating unique class exercises and role play scenarios to help his students think about what sort of problems they might run into after they graduate."The best lessons come from failure, so how do we teach that in a hands-on way to our classes?" Coleman said, posing a question to an audience at his Game Developers Conference talk. "By not teaching them [these things] we are not preparing our students for the worst."Coleman has run some of his classes through one of four different experiments, each spanning a the majority of the school term, to prepare students for handling the tough environment of the gig economy, negotiating with unreasonable publishers and clients, dealing with the variety of hardships studios often experience, and handling the emotional toll of being laid off.Forcing failure with careRelated:One point Coleman emphasized before diving into each hands on exercise is that he was looking for feedback and ways to improve. These experiments had "mixed results," according to him and he was wary of negatively impacting his students and the way they viewed their own work."Forcing people to fail should be treated with care," he said. "As you do run a risk of creating real trauma if not planned carefully."The experiment that stood out most was Coleman's Rapid Prototyping class, which had a group of students produce multiple small games in various groups throughout the school term. The program ended with the entire class working together on one project, with separate groups of students within the class representing different teams within a AAA studio."The whole thing was doomed from the start," Coleman said. "They were using a 5 year old version of Unity they hadn't worked with before. The teacher (me) was intentionally bad with communicating design and intent. We had regular unexpected changes in the design bible."Coleman had meant for his teams to fail and heposing as a senior figure in this fictitious studio was the main antagonist for this experience.At the end of the program, Coleman held a meeting with all the teams and told them that they were being let go. All the work they produced was owned by the fake company that employed them. He posed a question to his students, what would you do if you couldn't use any of the work from this past term? In reality the work was owned by the students, but he challenged them with a scary possibility that may very well hit them one day.Related:Pros and consSeveral elements of the experiment went well, according to Coleman. Some of his students felt the emotional toll of losing their jobs. While stressful, it helped them understand that situations like that are often completely out of their control. There was nothing they could have done differently to prevent the layoffs. Many students reacted poorly to the news, but Coleman believed it was good for them to experience it in this type of situation rather than in the real world where they'd have to pay rent and other bills."It also led them to update their resumes and LinkedIn profiles," he said, emphasizing that he wasn't pro-layoff in any way. "It helped them understand that the best thing you can do is connect to everyone else and build a network."Other elements didn't go as well. Several students thought they had failed the class, which made them panic. The bombshell of the layoff also happened at the very end of the quarter, which completely killed any excitement the class had heading into the end of the term. Luckily the class didn't fail, they received "severance A," according to Coleman. He plans to clearly communicate that the students could not fail this experiment going forward.Related:The experiments that Coleman ran were unorthodox, but quite relevant in an industry that's repeatedly shown that its workers can be let go at a moments notice to help improve quarter over quarter fiscal showings.Coleman detailed a few things that he'd like to do differently going forward, including making some sort of time for actual lecturing as several of his experiments involved his students roleplaying. Those sessions could take hours and often ended up leaving no time for him to talk to his students directly at length about what they were doing, how they felt about it, and what he hoped they would learn.The game design professor also plans to possibly change the schedule of when he plans to "lay off" his students, making sure that it's midway through the term so that he can leave time for retrospectives and feedback and simulate what comes after a layoffwhich is usually other opportunities and work.Read more about:GDC 2025FeaturesTop StoriesAbout the AuthorAron GarstContributorSee more from Aron GarstDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

My ears perked up while lurking in the back of a Moscone West lecture hall at the 2025 Game Developers Conference. Suspicious Developments founder and Tactical Breach Wizards director Tom Francis was breaking down his tricks for storytelling and comedy in his IGF award-winning game, and he landed on the subject of animated text. In Tactical Breach Wizards, he explained, Suspicious Developments made all of the game's dialogue more engaging by animating dialogue word by word instead of letter by letter. Each snappy repartee lands with the clack of a typewriter, and players who just want to read all the text at once can mash the "advance" button to speed through it.Suspicious Development's previous games Gunpoint and Heat Signature animated words by the letter, Francis (him, not me) explained. When he experimented with word-by-word animation, he said it was like "night and day." In a brief video demonstration, he paired the two styles side by side, the classic version was, as he said "very smooth.""I think that's a bad thing...because it lacks rhythm," he said. "It's too smooth, it's just like a continuous stream [of words.]"Even without the sound of the clacking typewriter, the word-based animated dialogue moved with janky speed, changing flow based on the structure of the sentence. "I think the reason it works is that it kind of matches how brains process speech," before hastily clarifying that "This is not science. This is just a conjecture."Related:He said he was amazed this technique "wasn't more widespread," remarking that "90 percent" of the indie games he plays rely on letter-by-letter animation (triple-A games tend to rely more on voice acting of late...though that may change if game studios still refuse to bargain with SAG-AFTRA on the topic of generative AI).As someone who's been thinking a lot lately about interactive text in games, and Francis' argument struck a real chord. There's no way around itmore developers, especially indie developers, can improve their narrative experiences with this technique.Engaging text helps players connect to a gameHere I must make a confession. Lately I've had an informal rule when evaluating the quality of any given game. It goes like this: the sooner I can actually play a game, the more likely I am to stick with it. Overlong cutscenes (especially ones that are essentially motion comics) make me twitchy, and smaller games that restrict how far I move or act in the first few minutes make me yearn for something more interactive.Related:That might surprise readers who know I'm a fan of big budget cinematic games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, but those games are often an exception to the rule. An engaging cutscene that sets up the story without relying on a backstory dump do a lot to cue up gameplay. Spider-Man 2's opening scene leans on shenanigans to tee up a tango with Sandman, and Survivor's grim opening scene sets the tone and stakes for the first mission.When they don't have the budget for a big expensive cutscene, indies try to lean on art and interactive text (either dialogue choices or pushing a button to advance) to fill the gap. My bar for "gameplay" is low enough that tapping, clicking, or pressing a button to advance text often snaps my mind into place. But here we encounter an issue text-heavy games like Disco Elysium face: text, when not animated well, flattens whatever interesting writing you have under the hood.In a 2020 interview with GameSpot, Disco Elysium lead designer and writer Robert Kurvitz explained the game wouldn't have resonated with players if ZA/UM hadn't worked to make the text "understandable." The game's deep reliance on 20th century ideological and philosophical concepts wouldn't translate to mass entertainment without excessive iteration on text. To do so, they created a system that made text "as addictive and as snappy as Twitter," taking inspiration from messaging apps and notification systems to do so. "You have to do everything you can with the meaning of the text to make it as punchy as possible and to make it as personal as possible," Kurvitz said at the time.Related:Which brings us back to Francis' advocacy for word-based animation. Tactical Breach Wizards isn't exactly the first game to use this technique! Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games like Golden Sun and Fire Emblem used it extensivelytruth be told, the sound and feel of that advancing text is partly why these games stick in my head.Heck, If I could give this website an option to animate letters word by word without breaking it (a tall order), I would!Letter-by-letter animation can be useful. The Animal Crossing series uses it in conjunction with the nonsense babbling noises to make each villager engaging to speak with. But it's a deliberate choice, not one of convenience. If your game has simple scrolling text animating letter by letterwithout any additional thought into font, placement onscreen, speed, or accessibility options, it's easy to take a fun activity and smooth it out into something more bland.Francis noted that this technique works great for comedy, because comedy benefits from timing and precision on how words are delivered. But it's not the only genre that does so. All kinds of games could benefit from punchier, more engaging text.

We've all heard the saying "everything has already been done once" when it comes to art and creativity. Fawzi Mesmar challenged this concept at GDC 2025, explaining that ideas can be repeated, but it's our own experiences that take a common concept and make it creatively unique.One of the biggest hurdles in game development is coming up with a story. Whether you are trying to figure out the motivation driving your farmer in a cozy sim or flesh out the creepy world of a horror game, we are all aiming to be unique, original, and engaging.An original and creative idea could be the key to a successful game. But what makes an idea original? Mesmar has some specific advice for those looking to harness creativity and get away from accidentally building a hollow repeat.We are what we watchRight from the start, Mesmar pressed listeners with the question "What is creativity?" He explained that the concept of creativity is often misunderstood as just "creating something." He instead broke it down as "an idea that is unprecedented." He stated that "what we do inspires us," and it is that inspiration that creates unique ideas.In game development we see trends as certain concepts with outsize influence on writers and designers. It is especially noticeable in newer devs, who may have set out to make a game solely because they were inspired by a specific title when they were younger.Related:Via ConcernedApeVia ConcernedApeIn the cozy genre, for example, it is a joke that almost every farming sim that has come out in recent years has a protagonist who is "trying to escape the big city" for a more provincial, relaxing life. This is due to how many cozy players were inspired by and grew up with games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley.However, just including the ingredients isn't enough. As we saw in the recent release of Sugardew Island, copying what works with other games isn't necessarily creative. However, titles like Fields of Mistria have exploded in popularity, and have been celebrated for their creative and fresh elements. The difference between the two is how the developers injected their own personal experiences into the title.Sugardew Island has all the right ingredients for a farming sim. Players can craft, farm, raise animals, and sell their crops and products. However, it lacks any depth beyond these core mechanics, leaving players bored and unsatisfied with the gameplay loop.Fields of Mistria utilizes unique, 90s-inspired illustrations and anime-like plot points for its story while injecting adorable narrative elements like a "D&D" tabletop game played at the pub on Fridays. It's original, unique, and charming, even if it has similarities to other farming sims.Related:The takeaway here is that a creative idea has to be more than just building a game around a selection of popular mechanics from other games. It needs depth, originality, and intention. Mesmar says that "originality is making something novel," and he has a key bit of advice for those trying to achieve this.Game designers need to create with intentionMesmar explained that "to achieve creative sobriety, you need to look into yourself and understand your own experiences and constraints."To do this, creatives need to look at a concept and think about how their own experiences in life could be applied to it. Instead of making a farming game where you plant crops and sell them, maybe you make a farming game where you have to teach NPCs how to help in the gardens, as you may have with a family member as a child. The game could be centered around building a thriving community garden and selling crops at a co-op or outdoor market. By diving into personal experiences, creativity blooms into original and unique concepts, even if they are based on something common and relatable.Related:Additionally, Mesmar says that "original ideas need to have value." You could have a core memory of petting your childhood cat, but does this experience have value? If you made a cat petting game, how would it connect or provide something to a player? If you have a core memory of petting your cat and you turn it into a hyper-realistic pet-groomer simulator or a platformer where the goal is to reach cats and pet them for points, now we are talking about originality. Who wouldn't want to fight baddies to collect cat pets like reward tokens?Creative Sobriety is about being intentional and thoughtful about the ideas we develop. Mesmar encourages those trying to harness their creativity to pause, think, and meditate on the why behind their ideas. By taking the time to consider how a concept connects with you and how it could be used to reach others, you will have the ability to craft truly unique and interesting stories.

The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize independent game developers advancing the medium. This year, Game Developer sat down with the finalists for the IGFs Nuovo and Grand Prize nominees ahead of GDC to explore the themes, design decisions, and tools behind each entry. Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa.despelote lets you explore the streets of Quito, Ecuador as an eight year old child caught up in soccer fever, kicking your ball all over town and using it to interact with the places and people you meet.Game Developer sat down with Julin Cordero, lead developer of the multi-IGF Award nominated title, to talk about creating a game that focuses on things that happen around a sport as opposed to focusing on just the sport, the intriguing ways they captured the feel of Ecuador in 2001 when they were nearing qualification for the World Cup, and the thoughts that went into how the soccer ball would operate as players experience the world through kicking it all over town.Who are you, and what was your role in developing despelote?I am Julin Cordero, lead developer and designer of despelote. The rest of the team is Sebastin Valbuena who does the art and music, Gabe Cuzzillo who helps with production, and Ian Berman who does the sound design.Related:What's your background in making games?I studied game design at the NYU Gamecenter, made a bunch of games back as a student, and despelote was actually my capstone project 6 years ago. Weve been lucky enough to have received support from various sources to develop it all these years.How did you come up with the concept for despelote?The soccer culture in Ecuador is huge and I used to play so much of it growing up, but when I moved to NYC I stopped playing and engaging with it as much. When I realized this, I started to think about the role soccer had played in my life and I decided to make a game to explore this idea. I had always played big triple A sports games like FIFA, but the soccer you play there didn't represent the kind of soccer I actually grew up playing which took place in neighborhoods and parksnot in big stadiums in front of millions of people. I found that everything that happens around the sport is just as interesting as the sport itself, so we set out to make a game that focused on that.What development tools were used to build your game?Unity, Fmod, Scaniverse and Polycam for 3D scanning, Blender, Ableton, and Photoshop.Related:What thoughts went into creating a world that would offer so much fun, secret stories, and mischief for an eight-year-old to get into?The game is set at a very particular time in the recent history of Ecuador. In 2001, the country had just gone through a big economic crisis and it was very easy for everyone to latch on to the national soccer team for hope since they were on the brink of qualifying to the world cup for the first time ever. This is one of my earliest memories, but it is very hazy and a lot of it is reconstructed from stories I've heard. So when designing the world, we decided to integrate many perspectives into this depiction by having friends and family improvise all the dialogue in the game. We came up with some basic scenarios and told people to pretend like they are 2001 so that they could bring whatever memories they had about it into the recording sessions. The results were always surprising and integrating them into the game became an interesting design challenge.Not writing any of the dialogue allowed me to be a spectator of these moments, so it was very fun to pretend to be eight years old and come up with ways of being mischievous around them. For example, a couple having an anniversary picnic in the park was a lovely conversation from a real-life couple who brought stuff in from their actual relationship into the recording. Wouldn't it be great to be eight years old and use their orange juice as target practice? Maybe the fight that ensues after it splashes has a hint of their real relationship too.Related:Kicking the soccer ball is pretty satisfying (and not just because you've booted it at someone). What thoughts went into making the soccer ball kicking/dribbling mechanics fun and appealing on their own? Into making them fun in a first-person perspective?I remember some of the balls I played with as a kid and how deeply I got to know them. A beaten-up soccer ball has so many stories to tell; it is such a simple object, but it is so versatile. When thinking about how to depict this, our instinct was to try to make it feel very physical. We tried to avoid using magic forces to keep the ball in front of you and instead embrace the unexpected nature of it. The ball bounces around your feet; you never have full control of it, but you can sort of guide it to where you want. The first-person perspective allows the player to have a direct connection and ensure that the ball is always in the foreground. And when the ball is in the foreground, the background conversations and ambiences can slowly seep in.despelote uses a striking mixture of stylized realistic visuals (drawn from photographs) and animated characters. What appealed to you about this visual mixture? How do these visuals work with your vision for this exploration of Ecuador in 2001?Sebastin had been playing with this kind of aesthetic for a few years before I approached him to be part of the game. I was very inspired by some of his 2D animations, but he had never worked in 3D, so it was a challenge to bring his style into a first-person exploration game. However, when we started experimenting with the art, we quickly realized that the mix of black and white hand-drawn elements with a noisy background established a clear visual language that was intuitive for the player. We committed to this contrast and it gave us much liberty to play around with each style.What drew you to work with photographs while creating the world? What effect did you feel this had on the game and how the player will experience its vision of Ecuador in this time period?Similarly to how we wanted to "source" the dialogue from the real world by having friends and family improvise, we wanted to "source" the environment from the real world. The design of the map is not exactly an actual place in Quito, but we bring in assets from the real world to try to ground the game in a specific setting. It made a lot of sense to use photographs and 3D scans because the textures have so much personality built into them already, which gives the environment a very raw feeling.Games have a tendency of trying to avoid depicting the real world, probably because it is technically just as difficult to create a fantasy world as it is a real-life city block. But we have so many ways of capturing the world nowadays, and I think games are the perfect vessel to combine them together.You also work with audio to give the player a real sense of place while exploring despelote. Why was it important to capture the sounds of the world alongside the photographic visuals?I think that the more specific a depiction of a place is, the more relatable it can be even for people who have never been to that place. This is especially true for audio, because certain sounds can trigger nostalgic feelings without us fully understanding it. I live in NYC now, but hearing specific birds chirping that Ian recorded brings me back to being a kid in Quito. This is why we really wanted the game to sound like Quito, and Ian did an incredible job recording and mixing it all together.

Chris Kerr, News EditorMarch 21, 20255 Min ReadImage via Team AsobiTeam Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet has some advice for GDC 2025 attendees lucky enough to find a spot in his packed out 'The making of Astro Bot' session: "It's okay to make a small game."They're pertinent words in era of burgeoning production cycles and budgetsand ones that should hold weight given the critical and commercial performance of Team Asobi's effervescent platformer, Astro Bot.Introducing his point, Doucet surfaces a photograph of Team Asobi's onboarding handbook that states "we aim for quality, not quantity." Better to create a michelin star morsel than a greasy platter of overcooked sliders.For Doucet, thinking small means gaining more control over your work and processes. It also means your players are far more likely to actually roll creditsletting you more effectively compete for their limited time in an increasingly saturated market."The prospect of a game you can actually complete is a really, really positive argument [for small games]," he explains. "That meant being okay with the game being 12 hours, but if it had been eight hoursand the eight hours were fantasticwe would have settled for that to reach consistent quality."Doucet acknowledges concerns over game size can be a "difficult bias" to overcome and admits the prospect of developing a smaller title initially sparked discussions in Team Asobi HQ. Eventually, however, the team realized they could use the benefits of thinking small and compact to maintain a clear scope and rapidly execute on unique concepts.Related:It's a decision that was justified by the fact that Astro Bot was built in just three and a half yearsonly six months more than the team initially envisioned. Budget was maintained by choosing to adjust the pitch of the studio's ramp-up curve to accommodate fewer developers over a longer period of time.With that mantra of 'simplicity' in mind, Team Asobi became adept at distilling ideas down to their core throughout production. For instance, although the DualSense controller has 18 buttons, the team forced themselves to utilize as few inputs as possiblerelying on short and long presses and contextual controls to bridge the complexity gap.The studio also simplified some of Astro's abilities. For example, they removed a third medium-sized Astro Bot from the (utterly fantastic) level that sees the titular hero turn into a sponge to absorb water and grow in size."[Initially we let players] select three sizes of sponge: small, medium, and large," says Doucet. "At first it was fine but then you forget and think 'am I small? Am I medium? Am I large?' It became too complicated so we went for a system that fluctuates between big and small. Once again, this is bias, as game designers we always think that more is better, but it's not the case."Related:Team Asobi sought to remove similar complications from its hero characters, such as the bot versions of Aloy and Kratos.With Aloy, the studio ensured slow-motion triggered automatically whenever players target an enemy with her bow and arrow. In Horizon, that effect had to be triggered manually. For Kratos, players need only press one button to hurl and recall his thudding axe. Again, that's different from God of War, which requires different button inputs to achieve the same outcome.Doucet says those tweaks were made in service of simplicity and with an implicit understanding that Astro Bot was targeting a different audience.That pursuit of 'less is more' extended to other, perhaps more surprising, areas of production. Doucet explains it pushed the studio to tell a story "with a minimum amount of text and no voice over." He reveals Astro Bot features less than 5000 wordsor 4.292 words to be exact.There are also only 12 minutes and 30 seconds of cutscenes in the entire experience, meaning players are 'active' roughly 98.3 percent of the time.Related:It's a metric that speaks to the team's belief in creating an buoyant toyboxby reducing distractions to champion perpetual participation. There were other benefits, too."It kind of struck me in development, but all of these efforts towards simplicity, they've actually made the game easier to share," muses Doucet. "For example, the fact there is no skill treewhile individual powers are one-shotmeans that we introduce a new mechanic all the time. That means you could have friends coming to your house, picking up the game halfway through your campaign, playing for the first time, and still having a normal experience. That becomes really powerful when we think about spreading to new audiences."Ultimately, Doucet feels actively pursuing simplicity is often viewed as criminally uncool in the world of sprawling blockbustersbut perhaps that just means those developers capable of squashing that particular insecurity will reap the biggest rewards."In order to exist in this very busy world, I think it's sometimes better to settle for a good spot in second league, rather than a bad spot in the top league," he explains. "Instead of joining the cool trendy party on a crowded beach with bars and celebrities, how about you just look for a little quiet beach and have a cool picnic over there?"A lot of the choices we made with Astro Bot could be labelled double-A or maybe lacking in ambitionlike the size of the team, the size of the game, the fact there's no text, no voice, and its not an open world. But that doesn't really matter. We still made a game that made people really happy, and in fact it was probably the simplicity that a lot of players made time for."Read more about:GDC 2025About the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

The Assassin's Creed series is commonly praised for its stealth-action gameplay and iconic protagonists, but it would be fair to say that its greatest achievements lie in recreating sprawling historical settings for open-world exploration. Nearly 20 years since its debut, Ubisoft is now taking the series to historical Japan with Assassin's Creed Shadows. It's a setting that many fans of the series have wanted to see, and currently enjoying increased popularity due to FX's recent tv series Shogun.While the historical setting of Japan has been the subject of many games, particularly the likes of Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, seeing it through the lens of Assassin's Creed is interesting. After all, this is a series that blends historical political conflicts with sci-fi and action-laden twists and the approach lends an opportunity to spotlight some often understated elements the history and politics of the era, while also reveling in the series' style of stealth gameplay and open world action.Though the shift to historical Japan seemed like an obvious turn for the series (ninjas seem like a natural fit for the Order of Assassins), the developers at Ubisoft Quebec expressed thatjust like previous entriesbringing the series to Japan required education and a need to highlight different perspectives of the era.Related:Speaking with creative director Jonathan Dumont during a visit to Ubisoft Quebec in early 2025, he explained what drew the team to the setting, given it was historical period of great change.Why Assassin's Creed finally went to JapanThe series featured multiple protagonists for Syndicate, Odyssey, and Valhalla, but Assassin's Creed Shadows goes about it differently by focusing on two unique characters with different gameplay styles and different perspectives on the changing era of Japan. The main narrative centers on the historical African samurai Yasuke (played by Tongayi Chirisa) and his new life in Japan, and Naoe (played by Masumi Tsunoda), a female ninja seeking to live up to her family's legacy to seek revenge, all set against the backdrop of the growing conflicts of the Sengoku period, with historical figures such as Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and outside Western influences paving the way for radical change in Japan."You always try to look for the thing that grabs you as a creator. For Assassin's Creed Odyssey, we chose Greece because we found the pull was the philosophy of that time, and that it was an era where that departed the land of myths to an age of reasoning with people like Socrates becoming more known," said the creative director. "So with Japan, what interested us was the nuance of the era's communities and the different sides of everything. It was a morally grey time period and the start of a global conflict in Japan as Western nations were coming to the country during that era of unification."Related:According to Dumont, some of the reasons why Ubisoft hadn't made an Assassin's Creed game set in Japan sooner were timing, developer availability, and limitations of the tech to fully realize feudal Japan's architecture and surrounding wilderness that changes with in-game seasons. With Shadows, the developers not only saw an opportunity for the series to spotlight this era of Japan, but also showcase the atmosphere and changing culture of a country after the Western world cast its sights on itall honed through the lens of Assassin's Creed and its focus on history's secret assassins."This setting was such a pivotal time in Japan's history, and the country became a melting pot, and life changed so dramatically during these 30 years of unification," said the creative director. "Cities were being built around castles, the samurai went from being guardians protecting [rural property] to becoming now centered around the city, and it also led to urbanizationlike commerce changed quite a bit because there was such a demand at war, and so the merchants at that time became very rich, and they climbed the social ladder. All that made it such an interesting era to explore for Assassin's Creed."Related:This aspect of cultural change and exchange is reflected in Yasuke's story, one of the central characters of Shadows and the series' first protagonist based on a real person. During the game's prologue, players see him as an enslaved person brought to Japan by Jesuit missionaries, and on the opening walk to Oda Nobunaga's compound, citizens view him as a curiosity and comment on his black skin. After meeting with the feudal lord, Yasuke eventually begins a new life in Japan and trains as a samurai under Nobunaga, which sets him on a path to partnership with Naoe as they navigate 15th-century Japan.Unfortunately, Yasuke's appearance has garnered attention from certain corners of the internet who neither appreciate his inclusion as a protagonist in the game nor his place in real history despite the fact that he's already appeared in other games like Nioh and Samurai Warriors. What this inherently racist criticism from these communities fails to consider is that Yasuke's place during this time period makes a compelling case for him as a protagonist and puts him very much in line with Assassin's Creed's focus on the strange, secret history of humanity.Image via Ubisoft.Image via Ubisoft.Moreover, the developers felt Yasuke's experience as a foreigner in Japan would allow a global audience of players to see themselves in his journey as he immerses himself in the culture of the country.This approach has precedent in the realm of popular fiction. James Clavell's 1975 book Shogun and the 2024 TV series of the same name introduce the fictional British sailor John Blackthorne (himself based on historical figure William Adams) as an audience point-of-view character.Becoming students of historyOne particular detail that Dumont highlighted during the production was that Yasuke actor Tongayi Chirisa embodied the kind of mindset that they wanted for the character, possessing an open mind and a "student's mentality." This was the kind of aspect that they wanted for the character, but also a perspective that he wanted the developers to have as well when trying to develop Japan for AC."I always think of making games like these as going back to school; you have to go back to the learning processyou look back on what you know, then look at what you're learning, and then compare that to what's out there in pop culture," said Dumont. "So it's really about being students ourselves, trying to learn as much as possible and being humble about it. It can be difficult to portray somebody else's culture, so you try to have a lot of people who can inform you or help you make the right choices. Traveling to Japan was awesome, working with the specialists was great, and all that changed how we viewed the setting and how we developed it as well."Alongside Yasuke is Naoe, the second playable protagonist who focuses on stealth gameplay and the traditional 'assassin' experience. In a way, Naoe is an outsider like Yasuke, and her experience represents the spiritual and emotional element of the game that highlights the harmony between nature and humanity.One of Naoe's side activities hidden throughout the open world are meditation rituals, which open up side missions to see her growth as a ninja from her father's training. One major activity that players can engage in is the town builder, an Animal Crossing-style mode focusing on building a community of allies and creating a town of your own. In this way, players will be able to see the details of the architecture and culture of the time, as well as how people find unity during difficult times.Image via Ubisoft.Image via Ubisoft."Working on this game completely changes how we perceive architecture, and how much nature and humanity are linked together in harmony in Japan," said Dumont. "When you go into temples and shrines and the wilderness, it's very clear that there's a strong connection with everything. We didn't understand at the start of this project, but as we did our research in Japan, we realized we needed to focus more on that. So, looking at everything, we were like, "Oh yeah, okay! We need to spend more time on that," and it's made our experience all the better."In a clear shift away from 2020's Valhalla, Shadows focuses on a more tightly designed world, which aims to put a clear spotlight on a period of Japan that's opening itself up to the larger world and how the protagonists build up a community. According to Dumont, this all taps into the game's core themes of unity and community, which he says is "the importance of taking care of each other."While Assassin's Creed Shadows does focus on the traditional AC style of experience where players engage in brutal combat, pull off assassinations of key targets, and parkour across an open-world during a chaotic period, the deep historical research creates a surprisingly inviting and wholesome tone, one that breaks new ground in the world of games inspired by the dramatic history of Feudal Japan.