Narrative

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has opened up about the use of AI tools in game development. He also threw shade at Steam, saying that the EGS doesn’t ban titles for “using new technologies.”

Canada-based indie developer Sabotage Studio has just released Sea of Stars, a turn-based RPG in the style of classic Japanese titles. Let’s take a look at its launch numbers.

Consultant and experienced developer Rami Ismail has shared his thoughts on the state of the games industry, while expressing some fears and concerns. He tried to outline the issues of the existing system where funding decides what gets made.

The enhanced version of Quake II came out last week, offering updated graphics and even new content. Looking at all the technical and QoL improvements, it is safe to say that other companies would be better off taking a similar approach to rereleases and remasters of their old games.

In February, the official comic book for the Shadow Fight franchise appeared on the bookshelves of the CIS. We talked with Nikita Korzhavin, Nekki‘s business development director, about how the comic was being worked on and what task it solves for the game franchise.

Scenario startup, which developed a neural network of the same name for generating game assets, successfully conducted a seed round of financing. He received $6 million from venture capital companies Play Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Founders, co-founders of Oculus, Twitch and a number of other investors.

Testers often do not receive proper recognition in the gaming industry. Jocelyn Baxter, the screenwriter of Eidos Montreal, decided to fix the situation. She said that most of the Guardians of the Galaxy storyline was written by those who had previously been involved in testing.

Visualization is an important tool in the hands of a narrative designer. With its help, you can quickly convey the idea to both the user and fellow developers. How to work with this tool — says HSE lecturer, writer and game screenwriter Sergey Chekmaev.

The official release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, a new PlayStation 5 exclusive, took place today. The project received rave reviews from critics, and the average score on Metacritic was 89/100 based on almost 100 reviews. Rift Apart is called perhaps the most beautiful game for today and is praised for using new technologies, but at the same time criticized for outdated gameplay in places.

Recently, the word “narrative” has become increasingly common. Especially in the gaming sphere. Screenwriters and “narrative designers” are very much expected here. Who are they, — says the HSE lecturer and co-founder JustForward.co Konstantin Sakhnov.

Obsidian Entertainment has been specializing in RPG for many years. Despite their commitment to one genre, screenwriters have to adapt to almost every new project. Carrie Patel, the studio’s senior narrative designer, spoke about the difference in approaches using the example of Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds.Patel shared her experience during a speech at the GDC Showcase.

Latitude Studio has attracted $3.3 million in investments thanks to the success of its AI Dungeon text sandbox. All the plots in the game are generated by artificial intelligence, and its creator is confident that the development of this technology will help reduce the budgets of the development of AAA titles by hundreds of times.The main investor of Latitude was the venture fund NFX.

Duncan Jones (Duncan Jones), known for the film adaptation of “Warcraft”, turned out to be a big fan of the classic quest Full Throttle. The director shared his 94-page script of the film based on the game, although he has no plans to shoot.Jones was inspired to write the script by a tweet from Tim Schafer, head of the Double Fine studio and creator of the original game.

The plot is a rare guest in construction simulators. This is a big omission of the developers, according to PCGamesN. In a recent article, the portal told how the narrative makes such games deeper and more attractive for gamers. We have chosen the main thing from the publication.

Newzoo analysts have prepared three forecasts for cloud market revenues until 2023. According to the most realistic, the segment’s revenue will grow 20 times by the specified year.

A new selection of books for developers has been released. This time it is useful for game writers.

How the game script changed – from retroactive edits to an important part of the development process: the experience of Rihanna Pratchett and Melissa McCoubrey from Ubisoft.

The plot is one of the main reasons why single titles are played. As a result, a good story today can affect sales. That’s what SuperData thinks.

For ten years, a full-fledged narrative games market has emerged in the industry: they have their own specific audience and special requirements for game design. The author of the hit What Remains of Edith Finch, Ian Dallas, explains how the expectations of players and their feedback allow the genre to develop, but at the same time they also slow down its development.

Zak Garris, the head of the development of the scenario of the interactive adventure Life is Strange: Before the Storm, told how he managed to gather a creative team to work on the plot of the game. According to Harris, he was guided by the main rule: “no jerks in the team.”

On February 1, Finnish Supercell announced that it is investing $4.2 million in the British studio Trailmix. It was founded by former executives of the London office of King, who created Farm Heroes Saga. Trailmix plans to create games with a deep plot, but working on the frituplay model.

The founder of SpaceX and the head of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, in an interview with the CEO of the Y Combinator venture fund, Sam Altman, criticized the latest Deus Ex for the plot and noted that the stories used to be better in games.

Why traditional interactive stories should become a thing of the past and what will appear in return — as part of the video cycle Game Maker’s Toolkit told Mark Brown, indie developer and editor of the Pocket Gamer resource. With the author’s permission, we have prepared a printed version of the material. We share.

We continue to post videos from the White Nights Helsinki 2016 conference. Next up is the report of the leading narrative designer of Suricate Games, Evgeny Puzankov.

At White Nights 2015, Playrix game designer Evgeny Danilov talked about what the plot is and why it is needed in the game.

The other day it became known that the St. Petersburg studio Orc Work has begun work on the second part of the Evilibrium battler. We talked with the chief producer Sergey Himmelreich about the fate of the project.

A French developer has announced a very unusual project called Hox – a runner with a plot and dialogues. About the originality and the project in our material.