Game Design

Blackbird Interactive is another game studio that has been recently hit with job cuts. It appears that the Homeworld 3 developer has laid off dozens of people, including some senior staff.

Imagendary Studios, led by a group of industry veterans, has reportedly been hit with mass layoffs, which affected most of its 54-person staff. The company hasn’t announced a single game in its three years of operation.

The situation around Dark and Darker has taken an unexpected turn. Although the legal fight between Ironmace Games and publisher Nexon is not yet over, PUBG maker Krafton is now considering creating a mobile game based on this IP.

NCSoft is stepping into the AI field by announcing a set of in-house language models to optimize game development. The South Korean publisher is now offering a one-month free trial to users across the globe.

Remnant II is having a successful launch, surpassing the first game in terms of peak concurrent players on Steam. Let’s take a look at its metrics and compare them to other games in Gearbox’s publishing catalog.

What are hybrid-casual games and how are their monetization loos different from hyper-casual? Voodoo head of publishing Thibault de Vésinne-Larüe has opened up about the company’s approach and what metrics it looks at when launching new titles.

Cliff Bleszinski needs no introduction, especially for people familiar with the games industry of the 90s and 2000s. Although he now produces Broadway musicals, creates comic books, and is involved in the restaurant business, he still has countless stories to tell from his gamedev days.

Some changes are coming to Naughty Dog’s leadership team as the studio’s co-president Evan Wells announces his departure after working there for 25 years.

In a series of videos on his YouTube channel, Mark Darrah recalls the games he contributed to while working at BioWare. Here are the lessons he learned from the development of Jade Empire, which at the time was the studio’s first original IP since Shattered Steel.

Game designer and creative director Emile Morel has suddenly died at age 40. The last game he was involved in was Beyond Good & Evil 2.

BattleBit Remastered has been a massive success, especially for a game made by three indie developers. However, its story should serve as more of a warning to other indie studios wishing to make a multiplayer title than a call to action.

Midnight Ghost Hunt, a multiplayer title by indie studio Vaulted Sky Games, has reached a new milestone following its launch on the Epic Games Store. The team also shared a roadmap outlining the project’s future.

The Russian retail received “Introduction to the design of gaming systems. A step—by-step guide to creating balanced games,” Bombora Publishing house reports. This is a book about development for beginners (it contains the very basics of work). We share an excerpt.

New month, new episode of Games and Names — a podcast about the games industry from AppMagic (launched in partnership with WN Media Group). It features Product Madness senior game designer Jesse Kroon discussing the issue of game clones, as well as the fine line between drawing ideas to create new experiences and dishonestly copying other titles.

Ryota Suzuki has been in the games industry for over two decades working on various action and fighting games. With Final Fantasy XVI as his latest project, let’s take a look at how he applied his experience and design approach to strike a balance between challenge and accessibility.

Prominent game writer Steve Ince has announced his retirement after working in the industry for more than 30 years. He has contributed to dozens of titles but is best known for his work on the Broken Sword series.

Veteran game designer Scott Mercer has announced his retirement after working at Blizzard for more than two decades. He contributed to the studio’s key franchises.

Pitching a game to a publisher or investor is an important step most game developers face at various stages of their journeys. This template could help aspiring indies avoid pitfalls when creating one.

The 23-year journey of Kiloo Games is coming to an end, as the studio is now laying off staff ahead of its closure. The Danish team is best known as co-developer of Subway Surfers, one of the most popular mobile games ever.

Industry veteran and former BioWare dev Gabe Amatangelo has been with CD Projekt RED since 2020. And he seems to have been instrumental in not only fixing Cyberpunk 2077, but shaping the future and finding the right vision for the game.

The UK government has announced an additional funding of £77 million to accelerate the growth of the country’s creative sectors. This also applies to the video game industry, where developers and emerging studios will be able to receive help at early stages.

It is always great to see professional developers share some knowledge and personal experience. Here is a test map that level designer Steve Lee created with Unreal Engine 3 to get a job on BioShock Infinite at Irrational Games.

Despite some major changes to the core mechanics compared to the first game, Darkest Dungeon II has proven to be a success following its 1.0 launch and long-awaited debut on Steam.

Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has detailed the process of writing design documents and how to avoid situations where people are making different games despite working on the same team. Here are some professional tips from one of the most recognized RPG developers.

Sergey Martinkevich, Publishing Lead at Azur Games, told about successful game design solutions in the idle arcade My Mini Mart, which collected more than 70 million downloads last year.

Experienced game designer David Ellis is another developer to leave 343 Industries after working on the Halo franchise for more than a decade. This comes a few months after the studio’s restructuring and the departure of other veteran employees.

Apple has announced the winners of its 2023 Design Awards, which highlights innovation and other achievements in app and game design. Here are the titles that were celebrated this year.

343 Industries has one less employee. David Ellis, who held the position of senior game designer of Halo Infinite, announced his departure from the studio.

Playkot 2D artist Tatiana Mironova has detailed how the studio implemented image-generating tools into their pipeline to create UI elements for Spring Valley. Here is what the team learned during this process and what are the clear advantages and pitfalls of training your own models.

New details about the drama surrounding Disco Elysium and its creators have emerged thanks to an in-depth investigation by People Make Games. Let’s dive into all aspects of it, from ZA/UM’s shareholder structure and legal disputes to Robert Kurvitz’s creative leadership and his recently registered trademark called “Corinthians”.

Redfall is one of the most disappointing game releases of 2023 so far, especially coming from an prominent studio like Arkane. Here is what was going on behind the scenes during development, leading to some obvious problems.

Game designer Eric Covington believes that he was unfairly fired from Blizzard. He claims that the company did this after noticing the lines he wrote for the Greedy Goblin character from World of Warcraft, ridiculing the behavior of greedy corporations.

CD Projekt has been reducing the size of the GWENT team for a while now. It looks like the remaining employees will be laid off before the end of 2023, when the game enters the so-called GWENTfinity phase (in other words, the end of content support).

Mateusz Kanik, along with several former CD Projekt RED developers, has formed a new game development studio called Blank. The team is aiming for work-life balance over crunch while working on a post-apocalyptic narrative title based on a new IP.

David Gaider, former BioWare writer and one of the creators of the Dragon Age series, has shared his thoughts on using AI in video game writing. He believes that while devs will keep trying, this won’t result in really great quests and narratives.

WN Media Group has launched WN Game Finder, a new game searching and business matchmaking service. Its main goal is to help publishers and investors filter titles and make it easier for game developers to find funding for their projects.

While Mundfish is working on the first DLC for Atomic Heart, we have reached out to the studio’s game design team to chat about some of the title’s elements and mechanics. In an interview with Game World Observer, the devs opened up about making the combat system and bosses, and also discussed some issues related to the open world.

Prominent game developer and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has shared his memories of creating the first Baldur’s Gate. Here are the lessons he learned during the process, including the importance of not chasing imaginary perfection.

Preserving educational and professional content is hard work that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Here is a huge collection of recorded gamedev-related talks from the 1999 GDC that have been digitized and archived online.

Deck Nine Games, known for its work on the Life Is Strange series, is another studio that has been hit with layoffs. Dozens of people have lost their jobs, including some team leads who decided to voluntarily leave the company.

In the USA, a lawsuit was filed against Nintendo. The company was accused of unfair and immoral use of gacha mechanics in the mobile game Mario Kart Tour.

Indie sports titles rarely find success in the market, but this roguelite hockey game Tape to Tape is a welcome exception. Marketing expert Chris Zukowski has broken down how small studio Excellent Rectangle managed to find a perfect niche.

While Mundfish is preparing to release the first story DLC for Atomic Heart, we talked to the studio about the design of the game and its individual elements. In an interview with App2Top, the developers talked about creating a combat system, gloves and bosses, and also discussed controversial issues related to the open world.

Ubisoft has published its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31. The company posted significant losses and outlined its plans for the future, which include the focus on core-franchises, F2P, and AI adoption.

Industrial Toys founder Alex Seropian has opened up about the cancellation of Battlefield Mobile. This all led to Electronic Arts closing the studio earlier this year.

Jason Wilson (aka Jay Gunn), a prominent game developer of the 90s, has put his art and design archive for sale. However, the reasons for this decision are rather unfortunate, as he needs money to pay bills while looking for a job.

Several The Molasses Flood employees have said they were laid off from the studio. This comes right after CD Projekt announced the successful reboot of Project Sirius, a multiplayer Witcher title developed by its Boston subsidiary.

Raphael Colantonio is working on a new game, his second after leaving Arkane. The title is said to be more ambitious thanks to a new partnership between WolfEye Studios and Galaxy Interactive.

Unity has finally shared details on the adoption of AI technologies and new tools coming to the engine and its editor. Let’s take a look at how the company plans to expand in this area and what growth opportunities it sees there.

AI Talks, a series of free webinars organized by WN Media Group, continues. Today’s episode contains more insights on AI technologies and their use in game development.