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Godot 3.2.2 Released

The Godot open source game engine just released version 3.2.2.  While primarily a maintenance release, there are several great new features including:

  • C# support for the iOS platform
  • 2D batching for the GLES2 renderer
  • re-architected Android plugin system
  • DTLS and ENET integration
  • Updated and localized documentation
  • Hundreds of bug fixes and improvements

You can read complete details of the update here, and you can download Godot 3.2.2 here (or on Steam).  If you want to learn Godot, you can check out our tutorial series available here.  You can learn more about the Godot 3.2.2 release in the video below.

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Beyond a Steel Sky launches tomorrow on Apple Arcade

Revolution has announced the Beyond a Steel Sky release date, and it’s tomorrow, June 26.  Yes, we were surprised too! The developer has been putting the finishing touches on the cyberpunk Apple Arcade game since recently revealing a glimpse of what’s to come in a Beyond a Steel Sky trailer from IGN.

The story trailer gives us a peek at Union City and also shows off some of the game’s quirky cast. It mainly serves, however, to set the game’s story in motion. You’re playing as Robert Foster, a grizzled chap in a trench coat who is about to play detective – as is the cyberpunk way. A child has been stolen from a peaceful desert community and following his trail brings you to a sprawling metropolis of flying cars and high-tech.

But now we have a Beyond a Steel Sky release date, it looks like you won’t have to wait long to join Foster, and dive into the Cyberpunk world of Steel Sky.

Be sure to check out this glimpse of Beyond a Steel Sky below:

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Beyond a Steel Sky is a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky, which came out in 1994. There are plenty of gameplay differences to make it more accessible to modern players. The most notable is the leap from a 2D point-and-click side scroller to a 3D adventure game. You can still expect plenty of puzzles to solve, though.

For those whose curiosity we’ve peaked, you’ll be able to find Beyond a Steel Sky on Apple Arcade tomorrow. We’ve also rounded up the best iOS and Android games to give you a headstart on that adventure in the mean time.

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Cocos Creator 2.4.0 Released

CocosCreator, a free Cocos2d-x powered cross platform game engine, just released a version 2.4.0.  If you are interested in learning more about Cocos Creator, check out our complete Cocos Creator tutorial series available here.

Details of Cocos Creator 2.4.0:

This update brings more new features, optimizes performance and improves stability. Efficiency is everything! This version contains many new features and updates, such as resource management system refactoring, asset bundles, optimized the performance of graphic rendering.

The key new feature being the new asset manager with the following features:

  • Supports loading and pre-loading of all resources, pre-loading can run silently in a lighter way, without affecting operation efficiency.
  • Supports Asset Bundles.
  • Supports a more secure automatic release mechanism, no need to consider its reference when releasing resources, to avoid mistaken release of resources.
  • Support download failure retry, download priority, download concurrent number and other settings, which can be adjusted according to various situations.
  • Support more convenient custom loading process to achieve special effects.

More details of the Cocos 2.4.0 release is available on the blog here.  You can learn more about Cocos Creator and this release in the video below.

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Defold Engine Adds Nintendo Switch Support

The Defold Game Engine (complete tutorial available here), recently transferred to the Defold Foundation, just announced support for the Nintendo Switch platform.

Details from the Defold website:

The Defold Foundation today announced the immediate availability of Nintendo Switch support for the Defold game engine. Nintendo Switch is the first console supported by Defold. Approved Nintendo Switch developers can request access to Defold through the Nintendo Developer Portal. Access will be granted to Defold community members with Nintendo Switch included in their membership tier. Source code access is available as a separate membership tier.

“When the decision was made to work on console support for Defold it was an absolute no-brainer to start with Nintendo Switch. Not only had our community asked for Nintendo Switch support for quite some time but the capabilities of Defold also seemed perfectly suited for the Nintendo Switch. It also turned out to be very easy to port to the platform and it was a real pleasure to work with the Nintendo Switch SDK. We can’t wait to play some great Defold games on Nintendo Switch!””, said Defold Product Owner Björn Ritzl.

Nintendo Switch support is available to Defold backers, although it also requires a Nintendo developer account.  You can learn more details about Nintendo Switch support here and by watching the video below.

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New Rules of Survival update will introduce trains and drones

Rules of Survival turns two-and-a-half years old this week, so developer NetEase is launching a new update to celebrate. The event is called 624 Rush Hour and introduces new vehicles and weapons alongside login rewards. You won’t have to wait long, either, as the Rules of Survival update goes live June 24, 2020.

The first significant change is trains, which you can board for combat as they dot along their specific routes. If you win out, you can take advantage of the mounted heavy machine gun to batter your foes. There’s also a respawn mod on the train so you can revive downed teammates, too. The drone is a sneakier alternative that you can pilot from afar. It has a machine mounted for damage and detonates on-demand to damage groups of people.

There’s also another piece of equipment called ‘The Scroll’, which is somewhat mysterious. It’s described as a magical parchment that gives its holder a gift every time they find one. We’re not sure what those gifts are, but apparently, the scrolls belonged to ninjas so that might be a hint.

Finally, there are login rewards, too. Boot up the game from tomorrow onwards to snag loot such as a Supply Coupon and an Avatar Frame. There are more goodies if you convince others to jump in, too.

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If you want more games to play with friends, then we got a best mobile multiplayer games list just for that. If you’re curious about other games on the horizon, then we have an upcoming mobile games list for that as well.

If you haven’t already, you can download Rules of Survival on iOS and Android.

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Unity Learn Premium Now Free Forever

Unity have just sent an email out to *some* Unity Learn Premium subscribers announcing that the online learning platform is now free in perpetuity.  A developer on the GFS discord server sent me the following screen capture:

Heading on over to the Unity Learn premium site, you will see the title bar:

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Although interestingly enough, there are no other announcements available yet about this change.  You can learn more in the video below.

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CryEngine 2020 Roadmap

Late last week CryTek released their development roadmap for the future of the CryEngine game engine.  Sadly it seems the next major release has been pushed back into 2021, although the feature list in the next version is pretty impressive.

Details from the CryEngine blog:

Mobile Support and Next-Generation Hardware: We’re working with Google and ARM to bring CRYENGINE to mobile and, of course, we‘re preparing CRYENGINE for upcoming hardware releases. We can’t wait to see what you can do with CRYENGINE on mobile, and, of course, we’re excited about seeing your CRYENGINE games running on more powerful consoles. Find out more about our mobile plan and register for our beta.

Scaleform 4 Update: CRYENGINE was previously limited to Scaleform 3, which meant that only older software and ActionScript 2 were viable methods for creating engaging UI. In the future, we are including Scaleform 4, which means you’ll be able to use both Adobe Animate and ActionScript 3.

Visual Scripting System: We’re as excited about this as you are. Almost all of our teams are working on and integrating with this new feature at the moment. As part of this process, we’re also undertaking a clean-up and separation of other systems, such as the Generic Reflection and Messaging systems.

Razer Chroma RGB Support: We’ve partnered with Razer to enable the Razer Chroma RGB effects API in CRYENGINE. This allows you to enhance the atmosphere and ambiance of your player’s experience by lighting up Razer Chroma-enabled hardware devices as the game is played.

More details, as well as future release features are available on the roadmap here.  They are running an early private beta available here.

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Quixel Mixer 2020.1.2 Released

There have been a lot of changes at Quixel since being acquired by Epic Games in late 2019, almost all for the better for developers.  Quixel Mixer 2020.1.2 is another example of that, with the texture generation tool getting a huge number of completely free smart materials, along side a new installer and resource manager.

Details of the release from the Quixel blog:

Earlier this year we introduced 3D texturing and Smart Materials support in the first Mixer 2020 release. This release comes with 50 new Smart Materials, a handy new Asset Manager and a new installer that lays the groundwork for regular releases of Smart Material packs. We are also working on new feature updates including Multiple Texture Set Support, slated for later this year.

50 premium scan based Smart Materials have been added to Mixer’s expanding collection of free top-quality assets. Mixer’s Smart Materials are crafted based on your requests by Quixel’s art team, using Megascans to ensure a world-class look and feel to your assets, instantly.

The new release includes Metals such as aluminum, oxidized iron and gold, Fabrics such as denim, linen and camo gear, and a plethora of Plastics, Rocks, Woods and Leathers. All these are ready to go and are completely free to use.

Quixel Miser is a completely free download, as are the new Smart Material packs, while the MegaScans library is available for free to Unreal Engine users.  You can learn more about the release in the video below.

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Apple’s Very Bad Week

Apple have had a remarkably bad week for developer relations leading in to their most important developer conference WWDC 2020, the annual event where Apple tries to woo developers to develop for it’s platforms.

To start things off, Rakuten, makers of the Kobo e-reader have filed an antitrust complaint in the EU, this joining an existing antitrust complain by Spotify, all around Apple’s anticompetitive App Store behavior.  On top of that, US member of Congress and more importantly Chairman of the House anti-trust sub-committee Rep David Cicilline went on record saying:

“Because of the market power that Apple has, it is charging exorbitant rents — highway robbery, basically — bullying people to pay 30 percent or denying access to their market,” said Rep. Cicilline. “It’s crushing small developers who simply can’t survive with those kinds of payments. If there were real competition in this marketplace, this wouldn’t happen.”

This comment is coming in direct response to very public and very direct comments from @DHH, creator of Ruby on Rails and founder of Basecamp over their app “Hey” being removed from the App Store, with the worst possible wording:

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Oof… so basically no IAP, no making App Store money, you’re not welcome here.  You can learn more in the video below.

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