Facebook is taking a deeper dive into the gaming realm. Facebook launched a new dedicated mobile app called Facebook Gaming on Monday, where people will be able to create and watch live gameplay. With this move, Facebook is angling to take on the likes of Amazon's Twitch, Microsoft's Mixer, and Google's YouTube. The original release date for the app was set for June, but with the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to stay in their homes and create their own entertainment, Facebook made...
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), the organization that creates content ratings for games in North America, announced on Monday that they are adding a new ratings designation to account for loot boxes, gacha mechanics, and other randomized items. The new ratings label specifies if a game has in-game purchases with random items, which is an update to the previously broader "in-game purchases" warning label. Back in 2018, the ESRB responded to calls for their ratings system to...
Over the last several weeks, large and small businesses alike have been forced to shutter their doors amid the COVID-19 crisis. As more and more people are confined to the safety of their homes, one pastime in particular has surged to the forefront: gaming. It's been reported that Nintendo Switch consoles are in short supply as individuals with a suddenly large amount of free time rushed to acquire the systems, gaming usage is up 75% according to Verizon, and Steam has seen record numbers ...
Last Friday, organizers for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) announced the cancellation of their 2020 event in San Francisco amid growing concerns over the coronavirus. Over the past few weeks, multiple companies including Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Kojima Productions, Amazon, and more announced that they would be withdrawing from the event due to safety concerns. “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry an...
So I still play quite a bit of StarCraft online. I am not great at it (low Diamond league) but I am good enough at it to know when I'm playing a Smurf. A Smurf is someone who is deliberately playing in a league far lower than what they should be in and they really ruin the game experience. Smurfing isn't specific to StarCraft and there really isn't much that can be done about it that I can think of. But it is one of those things that helps remind me as to why I don'...
Paradroid, Raid on Bungling Bay, Lode Runner, Kings Quest, Civilization, Master of Orion, Wing Commander, Planetfall, Star Control, Total Annihilation, Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic. #alifewelllived .
Have you ever been playing a game and wished you could just hit a button and start changing it right in the middle of the game? Then you're going to love The Video Game Machine (VGM). This is a game we've been working on for over four years. Hopefully you'll be able to see why. VGM isn't a development tool. It's been designed so that anyone can make games with it. Easily. Here's how it works: First, you pick a genre. We've started with popular genres from the 8-b...
Don't stand out. #StarWarsJediFallenOrder pic.twitter.com/dQ8bg4bqyf — EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) April 9, 2019
My entire adult life has been dominated by 4X strategy games. Some periods have felt like the genre was in a bit of a rut. Other times (looking at Alpha Centauri and Distant Worlds) there are true moments of amazing innovation. I can't go into specifics because of NDAs. But I can tell you that we're entering a new era for 4X and I thought I'd share with you why this is. As some of you already know, my partner Soren's studio, Mohawk Games, is working on Ten Crowns which is a 4X game an...
I spend a lot of time looking at the sales of PC games and we are quickly moving away from the traditional individual purchase model and towards subscription based platforms. Fundamentally, most titles simply don’t generate enough sales to justify engineering support post release. This is a relatively new issue that will be interesting to see how it gets resolved by studios.
The most important game release in Stardock's long, 25-year history was celebrated with a party! Here are a few pictures to give faces to match the names! Derek (GM of Stardock Entertainment) and Amy (Director of Operations). QA and SUpport team with the marketing team! Sarah and Leo Chris Kowal (VP of BizDev), me, and Kevin Unangst (VP of Marketing & Partnerships) Engineers! Me an...
This week, Star Control: Origins will be released. It is, by far, the biggest game we've ever done. It's the first game we've ever made that might qualify as a AAA game in our 25 year history. The first thing people will notice about Star Control: Origins is that it's unlike any game Stardock's ever made. Not just in terms of genre, but in general production quality. When you look at Sins of a Solar Empire, Galactic Civilizations, Offworld Trading Company, As...
Star Control: Origins is a space action/adventure RPG game set in the year 2088. It's been designed so that your character will continue forward for years to come (you won't have to keep your saved game safe). So as new adventures and such become available, you can be assured that your decisions and actions of the past mattered in some small way. So how do we do that? The answer is, data-mining. In Star Control: Origins, there are many dialog choices that might seem to to...
With labor day nearly here in the United States, we are putting the finishing touches on what will be the version that goes out for review. Here are some highlights from this week: Better late than never. Your ship's fuel range is now showed on the map. Very convenient if you want to avoid Tywom fan fiction (yes, that's a thing). The in-game codex continues to be enriched with documentation, lore, and other goodies. Visual effects have...
Every day, more and more people are becoming aware of intellectual property. As a software developer, this is great! When I started my career, I routinely ran into people who couldn't understand how someone could justify $100 for a piece of software when it only "cost" $5 to produce it because they didn't understand the concept of intellectual property. Unfortunately, enough people know just enough to get themselves into trouble. So in this article I will try to walk lay people throu...