Programming

Game Gears, part of the GDEV holding, has leveraged AI technology during the development of Aliens vs Zombies: Invasion. The studio’s CEO and AI evangelist Alexander Vaschenko explained how exactly these tools helped optimize production in his article for Game World Observer.

Alex Blintsov, CTO at Enraven Games and former development team lead at Pixonic, has created a relaxing decorating sim called Furnish Master. A year after the game’s Early Access launch, he shared its revenue, wishlists, and other valuable data.

Epic Games has launched a successor to the Unreal Engine Marketplace and its other storefronts. The new unified marketplace will allow developers to sell and download assets for various engines and content creation tools.

Unity has just released a new version of its engine, offering new features and improvements. Its new head is also serious about getting the company back on track and restoring its damaged reputation.

Unity has suddenly decided to completely abandon its controversial Runtime Fee policy. However, the company will raise prices for some of its subscription plans.

What’s the most valuable feature of VR development? The ability to do it while in the game itself. Here is how CM Games has been conducting guided tours around the harsh virtual environment of Into The Radius 2 with the help of senior game designer Anton Subbota.

Indie top down roguelite space shooter Nova Drift has launched after five years in Early Access. Its developer Jeffrey Nielson (a.k.a. Chimeric) has had a long road to success.

The new version of the open-source engine Godot has been released. Let’s take a look at some of the hundreds of changes and key features.

We are launching a new section on our website where games industry experts share insights into their professions. In today’s article, Valeriya Berlenko, content producer at Cubic Games (part of the GDEV holding), explores the unique role and responsibilities of a concept artist.

Starting your own studio is a risky endeavor, whether you’re a solo developer or someone with deep pockets. Mark Darrah, programmer, consultant, and former BioWare producer, has broken down the key questions you need to answer before embarking on this adventure.

GameMaker is one of the most accessible game engines. And the team has found that more and more young users are trying out the engine thanks to its free license tier.

Eve Online developer CCP Games will soon make its Carbon Development Platform an open-source project. The company has now explained how this move should help extend the lifecycle of its popular MMO.

AI is a hot topic in the tech industry, with more and more companies talking about their plans to use LLMs and similar technologies in game development. Nintendo, however, has its own view on the matter.

To celebrate its 8th anniversary, Owlcat Games looks back at the development of its very first game. Here is a breakdown of creating the Kingdom management system for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Believer, an indie studio founded by former Riot Games employees, has decided to open source its proprietary technology Friendshipper. All developers and enthusiasts are now free to use the toolset in their own projects.

Nekki has launched the new version of its animation tool Cascadeur, introducing major updates and improvements. In addition, the company revamped the software’s pricing policy.

Epic Games just held its annual State of Unreal keynote, showcasing the future of Unreal Enigne and sharing other news related to Fortnite and its business in general. Here are all the major updates announced at the event.

Ubisoft has unveiled its new GenAI project called NEO NPC at GDC 2024. It is designed to allow players to have real-time conversations with in-game characters with no pre-written lines.

Polish indie developer Artur Smiarowski has shared results for its sandbox roguelike Soulash 2 one month after its Early Access launch. Here is how it performed compared to the first game, and why the EA model was chosen for the sequel.

Electronic Arts has suddenly rebranded the Frostbite engine by presenting a new identity and vision for its proprietary tech. The company is betting big on collaborative efforts, while no longer restricting developers from using third-party solutions.

The creators of the Defold engine have decided to remove the monthly fee for using the source code for console platforms. Now every registered developer can access it for free.

Fun gameplay aside, one one of the factors behind Dave the Diver’s success was its combination of pixel art and 3D graphics. Here is how a small team at Mintrocket managed to create the game’s appealing visuals using the Unity engine and its tools.

In this article for Game World Observer, ZiMAD artist Andrey Novikov shares his insights on how to interact with AI tools and explains which parts of the work can be delegated to them without compromising quality.

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.

History is cyclical, and this is true for the games industry as well. Veteran developer and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has shared his thoughts on companies that repeat the same mistakes over and over again when trying to make their own Ultima Online or Destiny.

Cfx.re, the group behind roleplay multiplayer tools for titles like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, has officially joined Rockstar Games. The company, known for its rocky relationship with the modding community, will now support them in their efforts.

Generative AI is increasingly penetrating game development. Writing for Game World Observer, Nexters art producer Alisa Roz has detailed how the company started using Midjourney in the art creation process for its titles.

The Godot team has officially released version 4.1 of their open source game development engine. Here are the key features and improvements.

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.

Unity is one step closer to building its own AI ecosystem. The company has now rolled out new tools and a dedicated marketplace to help game developers leverage artificial intelligence technologies.

Epic Games has officially launched MetaHuman Animator, a new tool for capturing real actors’ performances and turning them into high-quality facial animation. Here is everything to know about the technology from the Unreal Engine team.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Epic Games has officially launched Unreal Engine 5.2. Here are the key new features and the main improvements available in the latest version of the engine.

Redfall didn’t look impressive during its marketing campaign, but it was hard to imagine that the game would turn out to be so fundamentally flawed. Let’s dive deep into its systems and compare them to some of the core pillars of Arkane’s game design.

YoYo Games is another company trying to integrate AI technologies into its products. Here are the main changes coming to the GameMaker engine this year.

Growing competencies within a team is a challenging issue, often seen as costly and not easy to approach. However, Anton Danko, the lead artist of Solitaire Cruise project at Belka Games, shares his successful experience in this matter.

Programming is one of the areas where large language models (LLMs) and new AI technologies are being implemented now. Here is a tool that one developer created to fix the wrong code elements.

Nvidia has launched its RTX Remix platform and made it open source. This should provide modders with more capabilities and tools to create remasters of old games and add path tracing to them.

There is a wide variety of game engines, from the most all-around and popular ones like Unity to more niche ones like RPG Maker. Here is what can happen when an indie developer tries to make the same game using eight different engines.

Stuttering… a word that has become synonymous with a painful experience for PC gamers. Today we are diving into what shader compilation is, why it leads to hitching, what Unreal Engine and DX12 have to do with this issue, and how developers can address it.

Epic Games has released a preview of Unreal Engine 5.2 and detailed its key features at the GDC 2023. Here are the main new tools and improvements that could change the way developers and artists create worlds and materials.

Tales of Syn is an isometric RPG in the style of classic Fallout titles. The twist is how it uses the power of Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT to create game assets, backgrounds, character models, and dialogues.

Morality is a great tool for game designers that adds depth and complexity to player decisions. So how do we transform morality into game mechanics? Let’s take a look at a few games that have done this well.

Up-and-coming game developers often use ready-made assets in their first projects. And this Argentine artist offers indie creators thousands of free models and assets for a variety of genres and styles.

Using ready-made 3D assets can save time and money for some teams, but there are also a lot of pitfalls. Maksim Nikifarovich, lead artist at Belka Games, has opened up about the key challenges that game developers may face.

The infamous development of Duke Nukem Forever and the sad fate of 3D Realms have become the talk of the town in the games industry. However, not many people know about the game’s early 2D version from 1996 that was recently leaked online.

Scott Thunelius, programmer and 3D artist known for his work on Subnautica, has shared with us the key principles behind creating retro-style graphics. As an example, he used Warpips, a tug-of-war strategy game he made with his friends in the spare time.