Category: News

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: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada

Purpose

HB Studios is Atlantic Canada’s largest and most successful independent video game developer. We have an opportunity for a Senior Producer to join our team of developers, creators and fans, who are passionate about the art and process involved in video game development.

As a Senior Producer, you will be providing organizational and creative leadership on video game development from initial design through to code release by managing projects to schedule and budget.

Main Duties and Responsibilities  

• Produce one franchise of one or more SKUs.
• Develop product vision and design with key stakeholders and champion that vision on the team.
• Ensure the highest possible product quality.
• Work with the Senior Management Group (SMG) and CEO to evaluate and ensure that appropriate resources and personnel are assigned to each project.
• Communicate risks, expectations and success criteria to key stakeholders.
• Proactively anticipate and adjust for problems and roadblocks.
• Enforce and help educate staff on HB Studios policies and procedures.
• Change agent for process improvements; contribute to the ongoing improvement of project processes to achieve efficiencies.
• Identify, lead, and develop economically viable video or computer game concepts; lead on market trends, patterns and customer requirements worldwide. 
• Oversee project documentation, testing and QA processes. 
• Work with internal staff and direct reports to train and develop their skills; mentor Associate/Junior Producers, Product Managers.
• Co-ordinate with external partners, contractors and licensors.
• Assist in the management, tracking and approvals of licensed assets.
• Develop publisher relationships through effective communication and personal skills.
• Think outside the box in a challenging and dynamic environment; be a source of creative and innovative solutions.

Work closely with the Executive Producer/CEO and the other SMG members to:

• Ensure each product’s commercial success.
• Understand, refine, maintain and disseminate the product vision.
• Identify and resolve conflicts between schedule, budget and design goals.
• Drive communication and provide effective coordination of staff.
• Ensure adequate, efficient and effective project staffing and resolve staffing conflicts across the studio.

Key Results

• High quality projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Good relationships are maintained at all times.
• High morale is maintained within the team.

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s level degree or equivalent / related experience.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in a project management / Producer role.
• Good understanding of multimedia and software tools.
• Proficiency in project management software (JIRA, etc.).
• Excellent organizational and communication (both verbal & written) skills.
• A proven ability to multi-task, make decisions and solve problems efficiently and effectively.
• Self-motivated and avid game player.
• Able and willing to work additional hours as necessary to successfully complete tasks.
• Excel as a team player and strive to maximize team/department performance. 
• A dedicated work ethic and commitment to excellence.
• A solid understanding of game theory and related technology.
• A solid understanding of all aspects of the game development life cycle and design process – from concept to delivery.
• Ability to handle multiple demands on themselves and the project; have a strong ability to maintain professionalism with climate changes, and display finesse when working under adverse conditions.
• Must be able to distinguish between low and high priority items, concentrating on areas yielding the greatest return, and demonstrate appropriate judgment in determining what requires a “sense of urgency”.
• Must be flexible, receptive and open to change, and act decisively. 
• Must be willing and able to travel (internationally) for work, where working on weekends or for longer hours may also be required.

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.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

This month, EA rewarded some of its longtime real-time strategy fans with a remastered edition of the original Command & Conquer, as well as Command & Conquer Red Alert, with Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. The game comes with new sprites, remastered audio, and new support for online multiplayer. 

Over on the GDC Twitch channel today, C&C Remastered Lead Producer Jim Vessella dropped by to discuss the process of remastering the classic strategy game, and explain some of the key challenges that dogged EA, Petroglyph Games, and Lemon Sky Studios. In particular, Vessella discussed the process for creating new art assets, recovering as much of the old code as possible, working with the actors behind the old live-action segments, and the process of releasing the collection after a COVID-19-driven move to remote work. 

Vessella also explained some interesting hiccups that came with the remaster—like for instance, the need to rename some units that shared copywritten names with known military vehicles. You can hear that story, and many others, in the archived video above! 

And for more developer interviews and select GDC talks, be sure to follow the GDC Twitch channel.

A few months back, Valve put out an open call for game demos to be featured in its third digital Game Festival, and hundreds of game developers rose to the occasion. 

The Summer Edition of Steam’s online game showcase kicked off this week as a sort of digital game expo to help devs get demos in the hands of players and somewhat fill the void left by 2020’s string of COVID-19 driven event cancellations, and is scheduled to run from June 16 to June 22.

The event sees Steam hosting and featuring a slew of demos for games due out before summer 2021, though the demos themselves are, for the most part, only playable during the week or so of the event.

The list of participating games currently includes over 900 titles, not to mention a schedule of dozens of developer-led streams hosted through the event. It’s a sizable crowd for an event that’s about offering developers visibility.

Steam as a whole has a notorious discoverability problem thanks in no part to the sheer volume of games released every year, but Valve looks to be putting in work to avoid a similar problem for the week-long event. To make sure as many games as possible get in front of the right players, demos are sorted across 11 different categories, and Valve has also assembled a Featured tab with both algorithm driven and hand-picked highlights. That front page also aims to sort games even further by highlighting titles under tags like story rich, open world, family friendly, and others. 

While the Summer Edition of the event is the third Steam Game Festival the platform has hosted, it’s by far the largest so only time will tell how much benefit participating developers will see from the digital game expo or if that experience will be similar to what devs saw during past events. 
 

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: Torrance, California

XSEED Games is looking for a Localization Editor to join our team. Our Localization Editors are responsible for editing a wide variety of English text, from games to web content to marketing material, and will ideally be able to demonstrate quality writing across multiple game genres. Industry experience is required. This is a full-time position based in Torrance, California.

***Depending on hire date, we may have the candidate start working full-time remotely.***  

Key Responsibilities:

• Editing English text in a wide range of contexts on deadline

• Coordinating with translators and other members of a project team

• Localization support

    -Text proofing / Implementation checking

    -Assisting with voice recording process

• Production support

    -Write or edit manual text, store text, and other text where needed

Requirements:

• Computer proficiency

   -Experience with Microsoft Office

   -Experience with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, web design, other IT experience a plus

• Excellent communication and organizational skills

• Proficient proofing skills and excellent attention to detail

• Interest in and familiarity with video games

• Japanese language knowledge a plus, but not required

• Pass our editing test

Salary commensurate with experience.

***If you qualify for this position, we may ask you to send us a short writing sample (1 to 2 pages) that we can review to assess your writing skills.

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.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

It’s been five years since The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim launched, and since then the way open-world games are made has changed so much. Bethesda Softworks has gone on to release Fallout 4, and companies like Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red have built their own templates for creating vast, open game spaces that rival the size of Bethesda’s fifth Elder Scrolls RPG. 

But despite how far open-world games have come, we at Gamasutra were curious, what was it like working on Skyrim? With the release of Skyrim’s special edition that brings the game to PS4 and Xbox One, we decided to invite former Bethesda Softworks lead programmer Brett Douville in for a conversation about programming the game. 

As seen above, the chat was particularly illuminating, since as Douville explained, the best language a programmer can know isn’t any coding language, but as he puts it “English”—meaning just having the ability to communicate with other team members and translate game design concepts into code and back. 

It turns out that even while Skyrim proved to be a huge programming challenge, it was also a lesson for Douville and his colleagues to just figure out how to take care of themselves and work together as a team. 

Be sure to watch the full talk for some inspiring (and occasionally very technical) anecdotes from Douville’s time with the Skyrim team, and subscribe to our Twitch channel for more regular developer interviews and gameplay commentary. 

Today, I had the pleasure to interview Ian Deane.

Ian is the developer behind Mesh Baker, the famous Unity asset that lets you drastically reduce your draw calls so your game runs at substantially higher frame-rate.

Welcome Ian!

* Disclosure: some affiliate links here and there

Quick Navigation

1. Could You Tell Me a Bit About Yourself?

2. How Did You Get Started in Unity Development?

3. What Obstacle Made You Write Mesh Baker?

4. For the People Who Don’t Know About Mesh Baker: What Does It Do?

5. How Has Mesh Baker Helped Unity Developers Reach Their Performance Goals?

6. If You Could Go Back in Time, Is There Something You Would Have Done Differently?

7. Besides Mesh Baker, What Are You Currently Working On?

8. Anything Else You’d Like to Share With Our Community?

9. Lastly, Tell Me Something That’s True, That Almost Nobody Agrees With You On.

1. Could You Tell Me a Bit About Yourself?

I work from a remote small town, self employed, in the games industry.

I support myself mostly as an Asset Store publisher and consultant, so although my games have not been financially successful yet, I have enough income and spare time that I can work on whatever interests me without worrying about immediate commercial success or meeting a specific release date.

The lack of pressure is perhaps both a curse as a blessing — pressure would probably keep me more focused — but I spend my time doing what I enjoy.

These days, most of my time is spent teaching powered ragdolls to walk using machine learning and trying to use them to drive a Character Controller.

2. How Did You Get Started in Unity Development?

Murder at Blaylock Manor, a point-and-click murder mystery created for a university multimedia course, was my first game.

Never heard of it? Not surprised — only six people ever played it — but who cares? It was more fun to create than to play.

Since then, I have been tinkering with every game-engine-like tool I could get my hands on (Director, Flash, Torque).I fell in love with Unity3D when version 2 came out. The games industry was shifting rapidly.

• The iPhone and Android app stores were suddenly a huge untapped market for simple, casual games that could be created by a small team.
• Indie hits like Minecraft and Braid showed it was possible to be a successful independent.

When Unity added iPhone and Android as targetable platforms, I quit my programming job and decided to work as a self-employed independent.

3. What Obstacle Made You Write Mesh Baker?

When I put my first mobile game on an Android phone, it ran at 4 FPS.

Ugh!

The biggest problem was having too many drawcalls. Reducing drawcalls required combining meshes, and for that, meshes needed to share materials and textures. I spent many tedious hours combining textures into a single large atlas-texture, adjusting the UVs of each mesh, writing scripts to combine them. Then I added a new prop with another material and… repeat the whole process. Add another prop and … repeat.

This process wasted huge amounts of time.

I needed a tool that could automate this workflow, take a list of meshes, create atlases for the textures, adjust the mesh-UVs and combine the meshes. Ideally this could be done per-scene, so that if a prop was added or removed, the whole workflow could be re-done at the click of a button. 

4. For the People Who Don’t Know About Mesh Baker: 
What Does It Do?

There is a very tedious workflow that most developers run into when optimizing a game.

• Combine textures into a set of atlas textures
• Adjust the UVs of all meshes to use the new atlas texture

This job can consume many, many hours and the work needs to be discarded and repeated if textures are added or removed. It is also a destructive process since meshes are being modified. 

Mesh Baker automates this process.

A developer can supply a set of meshes, and Mesh Baker will create atlases from the textures used by the materials, and adjust the UVs of the meshes.

Mesh Baker can combine the meshes or create prefabs that use the atlas materials. It works with both MeshRenderer meshes and skinned meshes. 

Texture Atlas (Mesh Baker)

5. How Has Mesh Baker Helped Unity Developers Reach Their Performance Goals?

Mesh Baker is an optimization tool to help developers to speed up their game. 

A major performance bottleneck for many games is “too many drawcalls and setpass calls”. These drawcalls/setpass calls are expensive because they interrupt the GPU.

The GPU is like an assembly line.

Meshes are fed in as input. Rendered 2D images are the output. A drawcall/setpass call interrupts this assembly line, since the cores must sit idle, waiting for the GPU to be re-configured (like a factory being re-tooled to produce a different product).

If the GPU does not need to be re-configured (all meshes share a material) then it can run at full capacity for the entire frame. Mesh Baker helps developers modify meshes so that more meshes share materials.

Unity’s performance improvement systems (static and dynamic batching) become far more effective in scenes where most or all meshes share a material. Meshes that share materials can also be easily combined to reduce drawcalls further.

Recently Mesh Baker has added the capability to create Texture Arrays, which are like an atlas with fewer limitations. Without a tool like Mesh Baker, Texture Arrays are difficult to create and work with.

Mesh Baker also works with Skinned Meshes. Characters can be customized (different clothing) without creating extra drawcalls. Also many low-poly MeshRenderers (eg. shards of a shattering object) can be converted from many-MeshRenderers to a single skinned-mesh so that it only has one draw call. 

6. If You Could Go Back in Time, Is There Something You Would Have Done Differently?

Mesh Baker has had two major rewrites and (with the emergence of DOTs/ECS) is about to be re-rewritten again.

The first rewrite fixed an issue where Texture Baking and Mesh Baking were tightly coupled. The rewrite made texture atlases much more flexible and re-usable project-wide instead of being tied to a scene and a single set of source meshes.

The second rewrite changed how Texture Atlases were generated. Mesh Baker now supports multiple Texture Packers designed to handle runtime baking, texture array generation, atlases containing edge-to-edge tiling textures and general texture baking.

Mesh Baker is very much in continuous development.

The next major rewrite will be to take advantage of Unity’s DOTS/ECS high performance framework.

Shadow of the Colossus (Source: pushsquare.com)

7. Besides Mesh Baker, What Are You Currently Working On?

My all time favorite game is Shadow Of The Colossus.

What I love the most is the physically realistic character movement. Currently I am working on a powered ragdoll character controller that walks, jumps and moves by applying forces and torques to its joints — just like a person in the real world. The character needs to keep its balance and propel itself by pushing on the ground with its feet. It can fall over, and needs to get up if it falls down.

The forces and torques are calculated by a ML model trained using Unity’s ML Agents. 

The latest iteration (training in the background as I type this) uses a camera to generate a heightfield of the terrain that the character is walking over. The model is learning to walk on uneven surfaces and step over small obstacles and gaps. 

My dream is to make a game that would be a cross between Shadow Of The Colossus and Goat Simulator.

Neural Networks & Animation

8. Anything Else You’d Like to Share With Our Community?

What a time to be a game developer!

When I started working in the industry, licensing a high quality game engine cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Good tools were scarce, learning resources were limited.

Today, Unity and Unreal are free.

There is an exponential explosion of excellent content creation tools. Hardware is more powerful than it has ever been, and deep learning is about to unlock whole new genres of games, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and content generation tools. 

9. Lastly, Tell Me Something That’s True, That Almost Nobody Agrees With You On.

I believe that deep learning research is on the cusp of creating a new form of life.

The intelligent “others” we are seeking in the stars will not be found there, they will be found in our AI research labs.

After four billion years of evolution based on DNA and biology, an entirely new form of life is emerging based on silicon eating electricity. This new form of life will exceed the intellectual capabilities of humans and in a handful of generations, the AIs (Artificial Intelligence) will be designing themselves. There is nothing artificial or unnatural about this new form of life, it is the latest twist of evolution.

Physically Simulated Animations (Ian Deane)

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Thanks for your time, Ian. I’m sure we’ll be collaborating again sometime soon.

Here is the complete list of assets he crafted. Give them a look, they might surprise you.

Are they a good fit for your project?

~Ruben