Author: sick skills

Ruiner is a new twin-stick shooter from Reikon Games that’s dripping with atmosphere, a pulpy murder-filled story, and intense action that’s…well, admittedly rather difficult. It’s another feather in publisher Devolver Digital’s cap, and we were lucky enough today to get to talk with Reikon co-founders Magdalena Tomkowicz and Jakub Styliński on the Gamasutra Twitch channel. 

It was a fun time, and a great chance to look at a game that mixes pulpy, polished violence with an interesting revenge story. You can watch our full conversation with Tomkowicz and Styliński up above, but in case you’re already on your way to KILL THE BOSS right now, here’s a few noteworthy takeaways. 

There’s storytelling power in top-down spaces

Tomkowicz, the game’s narrative designer, was kind enough to explain her philosophy for fitting a proper revenge story inside a twin-stick shooter. She shared some practical tips, including making sure no line of dialogue was longer than 3 lines, but also she said part of the goal was to make sure much of the game read “like a comic book.”

In comic books, Tomkowicz said, readers still take a long time to read pages even though there’s less dialogue than prose. So with Ruiner, she attempted to paint the game’s story through images the player can process as they move through the environment, helping add flavor to the top-down perspective. 

Be prepared for ANYTHING

Styliński spent a lot of time talking about how, despite years of experience at companies like CD Projekt Red and Techland, the Ruiner development team couldn’t have predicted the challenges they’d run into. The worst of them (which they survived) was when it licensed a track for Ruiner’s announcement trailer…which had to be promptly taken down because the musician they’d licensed the track from had used music they didn’t own. 

As Styliński said (in exasperation), there was literally no way to predict this happening, so the journey to make sure they could have an announcement trailer for PAX East was a huge challenge that they hadn’t anticipated. If you’re going indie—even with experience—Styliński advices you to get ready for challenges like this, along with the normal creative and technical ones. 

Faceless characters don’t have to be generic characters

Lastly, Styliński and Tomkowicz talked about the main character’s design, and how his faceless LED helmet gives players a character they can project their own ideas onto. We asked how they felt about their hero compared to the supposedly “relatable” generic shooter heroes of years before, and they said that there’s still something specific about Ruiner’s violent hero that rewards player’s imagination, instead of depressing it. If you’re working on a game in need of an interesting hero, Tomkowicz’s insights might help you make something memorable. 

For more developer interviews, editor roundtables and gameplay commentary, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel.

How much of level design’s best practices are specific to a particular genre or presentation style, and how well do level design skills transfer between different formats?

That’s the question game designer Lisa Brown sought to explore and help answer at GDC 2017, in an intriguing talk about how she applied 3D level design skills she’d honed at Insomniac Games to her work as a level designer on Heart Machine’s 2D game Hyper Light Drifter. 

It was packed with practical takeaways and peppered with interesting examples of how Brown was (and wasn’t) able to translate her experience designing spaces in big, open 3D games like Sunset Overdrive into 2D and apply it to Drifter.

Her talk was well worth watching, even if you’re not a level designer by trade, and now you can do so completely free via the official GDC Vault YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas

Despite the importance of the Chinese market is to the global games infrastructure, and how many publishers are trying to buy into the region before it’s too late, China itself still seems a little bit unknowable.

Western developers have long been localizing for the Japanese market, and the ground zero of the eSports revolution is fixed squarely on Seoul. But a mixture of censorship, restrictive government policy, and genuine differences in taste has kept the China’s games culture remote. 

Since 2002, Niko Partners has studied and interpreted Chinese gaming trends, filling the gaps and answering the questions for anyone interested in bringing their product across the Pacific. I recently caught up with senior analyst and China director Zeng Xiaofeng, and asked him what he thought were some of the crucial things Western publishers need to understand when trying to break into the games market in China. 

The first, and arguably the most imperative thing Xiaofeng detailed is the labyrinthine process of successfully (and legally) licensing a video game in China. Despite the country’s notable flirtations with the free market, all mobile games that enter the Chinese public forum must be pre-approved by the government, or more specifically, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television.

Some of the restrictions are notably arcane. For instance, all the text in games released in China must be written entirely in Chinese. Also, in order for a company to receive their revenue, they need to secure a very specific license from the government. The only problem is that those licenses aren’t available to foreigners.

As of July 1st, the arduous process involves completing an application, sending it to provincial authorities for approval, who will then forward it along to the municipal office for another once-over, before being sent back down the chain for a final handover. “There is so much red tape that it filled a 100-page regulatory report we released,” says Xiaofeng.

Dungeon & Fighter is still popular in China a decade after its debut

In the West, we pretty much download our apps through either the App Store, or the Google Play Store. Those two platforms are built into our phones, and it seems extremely unnecessary to seek out an externalized merchant. But that’s not the case for Chinese Android phones. The country has a massive third-party app store industry, and it can be really difficult to get your head around. 

The sector makes sense when you think about it. Google has been blocked in China since 2014, so naturally, other tech companies native to the region flocked in to fill the gap. Xiaofeng tells me that if you’re going to launch a successful Android game in China, you’ll need an intrinsic knowledge of the myriad consumer choices.

To give you some sense of the app store industry’s depth, here are some of the major players. Baidu, which shares a name and ownership with the China’s largest search engine. Tencent, the company that purchased Riot Games, runs the massive social networking site WeChat. Then there’s Wandoujia, a startup with over $120 million in VC funding.

Wandoujia CEO at recent keynote

We’ve heard horror stories about people who hole up in Internet cafes to play MMOs for days on end. But Xiaofeng says that many internet cafes in small or mid-sized Chinese cities serve utilitarian purposes – they are literally the only way some people can play games.

Xiaofeng believes that the setups at the more elaborate cafes in cosmopolitan areas of China are a window into future market opportunities in the West. There, cafes are outfitted with the horizontal, 5v5 set-up you might be familiar with from live eSports broadcasts. “They are great for eSports viewing and participation, and for coaching as well,” says Xiaofeng. “In the US, they hardly exist at this time, but I feel that more will be built with the high-end eSports focus in mind.”

Cross Fire is another title that’s been a consistent hit in China for over a decade

The Japanese and Western gaming markets are pretty diverse. You’ve got epic, fully immersive single-player adventures like Final Fantasy and Horizon: Zero Dawn, annualized sports franchises like Madden and FIFA, and casual multiplayer endeavors that run the gamut from Call of Duty to Gang Beasts. That’s not exactly the case in China.

Xiaofeng tells me that gamers in the People’s Republic prefer long, grind-y persistent experiences. “Chinese players love to level up and be competitive,” says Xiaofeng. “To the point that they would rather turn off the graphics if it helps speed up gameplay in order to level up faster.” 

In 2015 TechInAsia reported that the most popular PC games in China were the free-to-play Korean first-person shooter Crossfire, the massively-multiplayer isometric beat ‘em up Dungeon & Fighter, and (of course,) League of Legends. There’s a real commitment to games. These are the exact same three games that were the most popular in China back in 2013.  Dungeon & Fighter and Crossfire were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively, and League of Legends has been available in China for eight years.

Xiaofeng also notes that Chinese gamers are turned off by realistic imagery, and instead prefer their content to be drawn with “anime-style graphics and cartoon-style avatars.” But despite this general preference, and all of the cultural affinities Ziaofeng highlights, it’s telling that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently one of the top-streamed games on the Chinese streaming site Douyo. Game fans in China are not immune to global trends.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Novato, California

Who We Are:

Let’s talk some truth: Making games is hard. It’s a collision of art and technology that’s about as predictable as a tornado. There’s no secret formula, no foolproof blueprint—but it certainly helps to have a reason for making games in the first place. “Every Player’s Story is Unique.” At Hangar 13, that’s why we make games. We’re currently creating an intense action game set in an immersive world and with a strong narrative, but player agency is at the heart of everything we do. We want to give players the freedom to choose how to overcome challenges and make meaningful decisions that shape the world and characters around them.

Hangar 13 is the newest 2K development studio. We’re focused on creating AAA games for console and PC. The studio is comprised of industry veterans drawn from a diverse range of studios, who have collectively shipped hundreds of titles across a wide variety of genres. We are located just thirty minutes north of San Francisco, and we recently released our first title, Mafia III. We’re currently building our own proprietary engine and tools in service of our next AAA title, still unannounced.
 
What We Need:  

Hangar 13 is seeking a Senior Animator for our upcoming project teams. You will work closely with the animation lead and the lead game designer to create visually compelling narrative animation within our game. We expect you to have a passion for games as well as demonstrate a clear knowledge of the principles of animation in your work. As an animator with Hanger 13, you would be responsible for animating characters using a combination of keyframes and motion capture. You will work with our Lead Animator to figure out how best tell the story of our characters and our world both in and out of gameplay.
 
Job Responsibilities Will Include:

• Create high-quality scripted animation that matches the visual style of the game
• Mentor other animators contributing to narrative animation
• Set a high bar for the animation team for quality and pace
• Implement animation in game in our proprietary animation system and scripts
• Plan, animate, and implement in-game story moments and scenes
• Organize complicated sets of animation data
• Direct motion-capture sessions
• Manage animation outsourcing

Who We Think Will Be A Great Fit:

Minimum Requirements:

• Experienced character animator
• 3+ years game experience in animation using Motionbuilder and / or Maya
• Strong communication skills and a positive attitude
• The ability to problem-solve and prioritize issues
• Ability to collaborate with peer-level Game Designers
• Ability to collaborate with team in another country
• Experience with motion-captured animation data
• Ability to take direction well
• Able to respond elegantly to difficult creative changes, often late in the process
• Self-Motivated towards solving creative problems
• Must have current U.S. work authorization

Skills:

• Animation implementation knowledge
• Fluency with Motionbuilder and Maya
• Animation outsourcing experience preferred 
• 3+ years game industry experience

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

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