General game developing news and updates.
– Diretide has ended. Diretide Point rewards will no longer be available.
– There will be opportunities to obtain The Hallowed Chest of the Diretide through playtime starting sometime in January.
– Fixed Orb of Venom slow stacking with Orb of Corrosion
– Fixed Cloak of Flames not doing less damage when carried by Illusions (now does 30)
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Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Crate Entertainment, the creators of Grim Dawn, are looking for a 3D tech artist who will be passionate about working with the team to realize the technical and aesthetic goals of our next games. Primary duty will begin on an unannounced game being developed with Unreal Engine. For that reason, the ideal candidate will have expertise with Unreal Engine and tools that can be leveraged for the benefit of other team members.
We currently have multiple projects in the works using both commercial and proprietary engines. Crate is a small but well funded and independent studio with no need for publishers or investors. Our culture is casual and no-BS but we also pride ourselves in efficiency and working hard. Crate has no physical office and has always operated on a remote, work-from-home model.
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Interested? Apply now.
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As stay-at-home orders spread across the world in February to March, Chicago-based game developer Jackbox Games found itself in an unusual position.
While it chose to send its developers home to work remotely, players were tuning in from all over the world to play their party games. A lot of players. According to CEO Mike Bilder, the company’s traffic has been at holiday levels every day since about March 13th.
Through Zoom, Discord, and every other platform you can think of, all kinds of people are playing the Jackbox Party Packs at unprecedented levels. For a company that built its success on fart jokes and digital trivia, unexpected success during a global crisis came as a massive surprise.
Since we at Gamasutra have ALSO been playing an excessive amount of Jackbox, we reached out to Bilder for a conversation about how this unexpected traffic has impacted its operations, and how it’s grappling with players remotely accessing a game meant to be played around the TV in a living room.
Just to get started, can you explain how stay-at-home orders have impacted Jackbox’s traffic and sales?
We’ve definitely seen quite a large uptick in traffic, meaning people just playing the games, but also we’ve had new customers buying games and playing them. It probably happened around the same timeframe that everybody really started the whole shelter in place…in mid-to-late March. I think the 13th of March is when we as a company decided it’s time to go virtual. And so really around that same timeframe is when all that traffic and awareness of our game started to really grow.
How did the Jackbox team deal with all the new traffic?
Well, it was because it happened very quickly. It was certainly a little more reactive than proactive. We did have that issue of stability. And I’ll give you just a kind of a comparison–typically the times of year that are really big for us are around the holidays. So, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. People are home, people are playing with friends and family.
First and foremost, our games are designed to play together in the same room, playing on a big screen, everybody takes their phones out and plays. What we’ve seen since we’ve been under this quarantine is every single day is about the [level of] traffic of Thanksgiving–it’s actually higher than Thanksgiving now–and every weekend is as big or bigger than New Year’s Eve, which is typically the biggest night of the year for us.
That’s kind of crazy. So we’ve had to be reactive, we had some stability problems, we basically had to scale overnight to a huge volume of traffic. And we’re used to doing that when we can predict it. But in this case, we had to react to it. So we’ve hired a number of contractors to help us both on the customer support side [and] we had already been planning to hire some server and infrastructure engineers and kind of accelerated the timing of that. We’ve largely triaged that. And things have been stable and working and operating very, very well since then. But yeah, it was a bit of a reaction for us.
We as a company are obviously thrilled that there are so many people playing our games and we are very happy and glad that in this super anxious time that people can laugh and still socialize by playing our game. So we’re proud of that. We’re happy about it, but we also recognize that a ton of new people have been introduced to our products just because of this quarantine.
So we want to do some good around this. And we actually just announced today that we’re hosting a 10-episode charity event with celebrities and we’re going to be donating $100,000 each event to a COVID-19 charity or some charity that’s either directly helping those that are affected by it or helping first responders. So we’re trying to do some goodwill here too, and give back because we’ve had the fortune of some success recently. But we want to make sure that we’re also taking care of people that are affected by the ongoing crisis.
You mentioned these games were intended to be played in-person, around a TV. How have you adapted to people playing over video calling software like Zoom, or through streaming?
So here’s a little anecdote when we first started this whole game, this phones-as-controllers kind of paradigm. It was back in 2014 when we launched Fibbage and then we quickly launched the first Jackbox Party Pack right after that, and people started playing it over Twitch and Mixer and they were streaming our games, and anyone that was watching would join the game and play.
I guess we anticipated that was something that would happen, but we didn’t anticipate the volume and interest in that happening. And so we quickly embraced that. As more Party Packs released, and on Quiplash’s standalone release, we added a bunch of features. To embrace streamers, we added extended timers for the stream delay, we added some VIP methodology to start the game, and we have [added] a bunch of other features over the years to embrace [remote play].
We’re certainly taking a look at the way people are playing our games now over video conferencing software. And we’re also trying to identify what works best. I mean, there are pros and cons to each of them out there–Teams and Hangouts and Zoom, etc. Some of them work better than others. Some of them share the audio better than others. But some of you have to pay for, and some are free. So we’re trying to compile information and recognize what the best solution is in the near term.
We’ve done an extensive blog post on that to give people some tips and tricks on how to set it up for success. But I do think from a design perspective, we’re paying attention and should this become a new norm, unfortunately, you know, we’ll definitely take some design steps to embrace it and make it a better experience for people.
Has working remotely impacted your team’s performance at all?
I think it’s like everybody else we can be effective. I mean, we make software so people can be remote and still be effective at doing it. The challenge for us more than anything is we’re a games company and we make five games a year that go under the banner of a single packaged product and there’s just a ton of iteration that happens throughout that.
There’s a lot of impromptu design points, like “hey grab these five people and play the game over lunch. Let’s do some critiques. Let’s hone in on it make some tweaks to it do it again tomorrow.” And we have to do that kind of thing now over scheduled Zoom calls or something, and it’s a little more cumbersome than it is to just pull people all in the same physical space and kind of kick the tires on something.
But things are on track. We don’t anticipate any real big slippage. We plan to still ship in the fall with our party back. But you know, the same challenges people have being remote, we have similar ones.
Jackbox isn’t the only company seeing success in this pandemic–but other companies who are doing well, like Netflix, are anticipating a potential drop in customers later in the year, either from a recession or just because success in Q1 eats into the people who can buy your product in Q2. Has that impacted your plans for the company?
I completely anticipate that will happen. I mean, I think from a business perspective there will be some stabilization of the marketplace and there will be just a correction back to a norm.
What that norm is a little TBD. For us. I personally anticipate the normal to settle at something higher than that. It typically has been for us just because we’ve introduced a whole bunch of new people to our ecosystem. And, you know, we have more than anecdotal data to show that if you play a party pack and you’re a consumer of it, there’s a high likelihood at some point, you’re going to buy another party pack in our catalog.
So I hope and expect that we’re not going to crash below where we were. But that will level out at least to where we were before and what we were projecting for the year and maybe slightly higher going forward, which would be amazing.
Like, as long as it doesn’t turn into Facebook where it’s not cool anymore because you know, parents and grandparents are playing it, as long as that doesn’t happen, I’m great.
While Jackbox is doing well with new customers, your website still lists the game on traditional platforms that may only be accessible to people familiar with video games. Have you thought about how that may impact non-traditional game players and how they can buy your games?
We have had the philosophy for a long time to try and get on as many platforms as we can that’s reasonable or feasible. And at this point, I think we’re on 12 different platforms. So from a consumer’s perspective, if you’re not a console person, but you have a PC, then you know, we’re on PC, Mac, and Linux. If you’re not even a PC gamer, but you’ve got a set-top box like fire TV or Apple TV or even the Comcast XFINITY X1, you can find our games on all those platforms as well.
And I think we kind of straddle this–we’re not a hardcore game, and we’re not a mobile game. But we fall in this casual realm where those devices in those boxes actually become a meaningful place to find our games for people to actually consume them and play. I think what’s interesting is right now…is we’re seeing a lot of activity in the PC in the Mac space right now for, as you would assume, obvious reasons. That’s where you can do video conferencing and screen sharing the easiest, right?
You could certainly fire up Zoom on your iPad or your laptop and point the camera at your television, but it’s much easier to just do it as we’re doing this video call right now with screenshare, and have the game natively running on the machine.
So we’ve seen a lot of purchases geared towards PC and Mac because that is where people’s videoconferencing is. How we change that going forward–there’s no immediate plan for us to make our own platform or have our own service online where you go to it to play the game or something. We’re still embracing these other marketplaces. But are there ways to do better integrations with videoconferencing? Are there better executions to be had? Those are all things that we’re thinking about right now and trying to work on.
Yeah, just for comparison, I’ve been playing on my Switch, running it through our Teams streaming software. But I’d bought the games on my Switch so I could cart them around the country during the holidays!
You’re technologically savvy, right? The easiest platform right now has been Zoom. Zoom has a way to when you share the screen, there’s a checkbox to say share [the computer’s] audio as well. And that actually works pretty well. So if you’re running a Zoom client on Mac or PC and you’re running a native game on Mac or PC, that seems to be the best [tool]. The challenge with that is Zoom becomes a paid service, right? Then it’s just dealing with the 40-minute limit for the free service and then you have to pay.
We’d love to find one platform we can advise everyone to use, that’s both free and solves the audio problem and allows video transfer.
What would you say to developers who think now is the best time to jump into making digital party games? (Besides, “stay out, this is our turf?”)
(laughs) …If you’re looking to get into space, the party game genre is kind of an odd genre. I’ve been in the game space for over 20 years now. At one point, you probably would associate [digital “party games” with] things like Rock Band and Guitar Hero and these giant party games that swept the nation at one point–even some of the karaoke games [like] SingStar. There’s not a ton happening, at least in the console space, in the marketplace in the party game space.
There’s a lot of indie stuff that happens, and there’s a lot of mobile stuff. There’s a lot of Steam indie games, there’s a lot of things along those lines. So, check out what’s out there and see [if] you’ve got a cool game idea that’s not identical to one that’s out there, and see what you can do, but do it better.
Following a rough launch fraught with bugs, digital storefront drama, and reports of borderline mutiny within a crunch-laden studio, CD Projekt Red announced a staggering 13 million units sold of Cyberpunk 2077, the company said Tuesday.
The latest figures represent numbers as of December 20, or 10 days after launch and put the game in the upper echelon of successful game releases when it comes to sales.
The 13 million figure is up from the 8 million preorders the company announced earlier this year, and includes physical and digital refunds of the game, which were prompted by issues players encountered soon after launch.
CDPR’s statement said it disclosed the latest milestone “due to its potential impact on investment-related decisions,” showing the company is keen to point out the game’s financial success to investors thus far.
Since the game’s launch, the CDPR has had to address the game’s bugs, performance issues (particularly on ubiquitous last-gen consoles), and navigate its relationship with Sony, which pulled the game from the digital PlayStation Store post-launch, in an unprecedented move.
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[The GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter is written by ‘how people find your game’ expert & GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.]
Welcome to the final GameDiscoverCo newsletter before the holidays! It’s been a bit of a crazy year, huh? Looks like there’s a lot to get through in this edition. (Though we’ll still have at least one newsletter before the end of 2020.)
We should probably get to it, huh? Let’s go:
So, it’s not the biggest sample size in the world, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the PS Time Tracker website recently. It allows players to add a bot as a friend on PSN, and then has the bot keep a track of the games you’re playing. (Don’t shut this down, Sony – it’s interesting!)
In the above image, there’s the Top 10 PlayStation 5 games played over the last 30 days, with number of sessions and average playtimes, from a sample size of 3,018 active players. (Presumably mostly English language & more ‘core’ gamers!) The top 100 is listed here.
Not surprising to see Cyberpunk 2077 atop the list (despite not having been out for 30 days!) But I did think it notable that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is doing so well playtime-wise (averaging 30 hours per player?) And the Demon’s Souls remake has been the standout PS5 exclusive from a playtime perspective right now.
The other obvious lesson? People are still playing plenty of previously released titles (like FIFA 21, Destiny 2, and Fortnite), with varying degrees of graphical upgrade, just because they’re great titles that are frequently updated. While ‘only on PS5’ works in a few cases, it’s really the cross-gen sell that cements the deal for prospective buyers.
Briefly, the site also does have PlayStation 4 Top 100 playtime stats. And wow, Grand Theft Auto V is still doing so well (partly because of its GTA Online GaaS elements, I’m sure!) And there’s lots of GaaS-y stuff in the Top 50, as you’d expect, since this is all about playtime. Anyhow, poke around, and hopefully learn some things you didn’t know!
A couple of recent GameDiscoverCo newsletters have seen more widespread feedback, so here’s a couple of follow-ups:
First, the newsletter discussing the eShop’s crackdown on extreme discounting ended up getting pretty popular, including a re-report by Polygon citing GameDiscoverCo. There were some skeptics on the ‘$1.99 minimum for North American eShop’ report, because there are still a handful of games that show up cheaper.
But it turns out this is due to some devs (like SMG Studio of Death Squared fame, ahem) setting their discounts months and months ahead, before the rule changed:
9ï¸â£9ï¸â£ cents on the Nintendo Switch US eShop ð
Lowest price ever and we’ll never be able to go this low again as the rules changed.
We’re the lowest price game on the eShop because I planned the sales 4 months in advance â¡ð§ â¡ pic.twitter.com/UAvVDwaRUn
— SMG Studio: Buy Moving Out for Xmas! (@smgstudio) December 18, 2020
Relatedly, it was pointed out as a follow-up that the Japanese eShop has capped the maximum sale price to 100 yen (~1 USD). But due to the more, uhh, ‘orderly’ approach to Switch in Japan, there’s been less crazy discounting in general for Switch in Japan. Which really can’t be said for North America or Europe, haha.
(Though Martin Lindell does note that he “imagines there will be more games releasing as IARC is now approved, meaning no CERO certificate required for the JP eShop.” This is a good point, as CERO was a bit of a nightmare(tm).)
Secondly, the opinion piece on game company acquisitions and ‘the growth stock bubble’ had an excellent reply from Edo Salvesen at Finstock Capital, a London-based company that specializes in video game financing.
Edo makes the fair point that it’s not just company execs that are hot on making acquisitions, it’s also their shareholders: “Those games companies which are listed [on public stock exchanges] (Team 17/Keywords etc) and are already generating profit are being questioned by investors what they are doing with the excess cash they are producing.
They have a number of options available to them. They could return it to shareholders [as dividends], but it’s in management’s interest to keep hold of it and prove that they can hit long term incentives. By returning to shareholders they are limiting their own growth plans – so they would argue that by investing in Company A/B or C, they are generating better returns.”
So ‘game companies are profitable, nothing else to do but buy more companies, since your investors insist on it’ seems to be the reality for public firms, in this growth-centric ecosystem. Not a massive fan of this infinite roll-up scenario, but that’s where we are at.
Before we get to the round-ups, wanted to thank all of you for reading and supporting the GameDiscoverCo newsletter – and the company – in 2020! Consulting clients like No More Robots, Dotemu, Akupara Games & a number of others I can’t talk about have made it a rewarding and fun time for us so far.
And I definitely want to thank those who supported the GameDiscoverCo Plus newsletter and data tier when it launched – it’s already one of the top 10 paid technology newsletters on the Substack platform, after just a month or so, woo.
While I’m here, a quick note about enhancements for GameDiscoverCo Plus subscribers. We recently added Steam Hype scores on our Plus back-end details page for every single unreleased Steam game, updated daily & browsable on demand. (I showcased this on Twitter, re: Back 4 Blood’s swift rise to a near-Top 30 Hype score as one of the most anticipated Steam games. And did you know that Party Animals is now #1 on the GameDiscoverCo Steam Hype list, after Cyberpunk’s release?)
We’re not planning to make GameDiscoverCo a ‘data coming out of our ears’ Newzoo or EEDAR competitor. But we will continue augmenting our Plus-exclusive newsletters with interesting data, AMAs, Discord conversations and analyses you can’t get elsewhere – so sign up & help us keep up the good work!
Since the last newsletter didn’t have any round-up elements, we’re backed up with just a few billion links here. So let’s bust ‘em all out at once and dissolve your brain into gelatinous material:
Some of you may remember this from last year, but Facepunch Studios (Rust, Garry’s Mod) is very, very transparent – so much so that its 2020 year in review blog posted its lifetime revenue for both games. Comparing it to 2019’s post, looks like Rust sold 530,000 copies during 2020, and grossed another $43 million during the year (wow – it’s $40, and has DLC and an item store.) And Garry’s Mod did $11 million gross and 1.7 million extra copies. Pocket change, then.
Lots of Steam stuff: the Valve team published a retrospective on the Autumn Sale noting that “just shy of a million players bought a game or made a microtransaction on Steam for the very first time (a 33% increase over the same timeframe in 2019)”; the Top Steam releases of November 2020 include a lot of Early Access => full releases, and are worth perusing at length; the latest Steam weekly charts are still headed by Cyberpunk, duh.
Google has rolled out Google Stadia on iOS devices, and “as expected, the company is using a web app to access the service.” Seems fairly easy, but the adoption will clearly not be as good as a dedicated app due to the extra steps: “Head over to stadia.google.com from your iOS device. Log in to your Google account, add a shortcut to your home screen and open the web app.”
I was a little surprised to find that the Epic Games Store has added Spotify as an app, but as The Verge says: “With the Epic Game Store’s growing user base, developer-friendly fee structure, and the fact that it now hosts one of the most popular apps in the world, Epic seems to be making the case that non-gaming developers should consider its distribution platform as a viable alternative to other app stores.” Or is this partly an ‘Apple lawsuit buddies’ type thing?
Looks like China is rolling out a new video game ratings system, via the government-backed China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA): “The new standard divides games into three age categories: eight, 12 and 16 and older, represented by green, blue and yellow labels respectively.” Chinese industry watcher Daniel Camilo has a Twitter thread on it where he notes: “Obviously social/politically sensitive content will still prevent some games to enter China, but [higher age] ratings could (maybe) mean that more gory/violent elements will be allowed.” We’re still at the speculation stage, though…
Chris Zukowski at HowToMarketAGame has a useful case study on a game that increased its base wishlists (something I’ve been talking a LOT about!) by changing, uhh, pretty much everything about itself – release date, name, tags, screenshots. (I quibble that some of the micro-changes can be graphed down to very specific days. But the ‘best practices’ approach to getting natural discoverability up is 100% correct – kudos.)
Microlinks: The Independent Games Festival is looking for judges (I recommend it if you’re not planning to enter, it’s a lot of fun!); this piece on HybridCasual games in the mobile space is a window on a whooole other fascinating world; GamesIndustry.biz has an absolutely gigantic infographic about this year in video game numbers.
Microlinks Pt.2: Google Stadia licensed Cthulhu Saves Christmas as a special holiday game, which is a super cute idea; crowdfunding game service Fig is still just about going, but its latest game has just 17 backers; follow the GameDiscoverCo Twitter feed to discover stuff like the hot new U.S. Switch eShop games right now – they’re Moi Rai/Team17’s Monster Sanctuary, Peachy Keen Games & WhiteThorn Games’ Calico, and Terry Cavanagh & Distractionware’s Dicey Dungeons, for the record.
[Happy holidays! We’re GameDiscoverCo, a new agency based around one simple issue: how do players find, buy and enjoy your premium PC or console game. You can now subscribe to GameDiscoverCo Plus to get access to exclusive newsletters, interactive daily rankings of every unreleased Steam game, and lots more besides!]
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In this 2017 GDC talk, Ubisoft’s Eric Martel describes how to construct advanced sensory systems to allow AI to better respond to player inputs.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying 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 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.
They can often be a tricky genre to pin down, but, in spite of that, roguelikes have risen to massive popularity over the past few years. The best mobile roguelikes include turn-based gameplay, exploration or combat, as well as a harsh progression cycle, punishing you and almost invariably resetting your progress.
But the debate around what properly constitutes a roguelike is still going on because they aren’t a one-size-fits-all like many of the other genres we play. There will always be games which serve as exceptions to the rule. But in our opinion, when games are experimenting is when they are at their most fun.
One thing we can agree on for sure, though, is that the best mobile roguelikes can be recognised by the way they use constraint to create entertaining, thoughtful, and compact games that actually lend themselves wonderfully to the mobile platform. There are a ton of quality mobile roguelikes out there that you could be playing on-the-go, so lets take a look at this fantastic genre, with our list of the best mobile roguelikes.
In the absence of a mobile version of Slay the Spire, plenty of roguelike/deck builder hybrids have stormed the App Store to try and capture that audience. Dimension of Dreams represents one of the better ones to come along recently. It’s a token premium game with in-app purchases, but we’ve found that everything is neatly balanced and scaled so that it doesn’t feel like a grind.
There are also plenty of different deck archetypes for you to play around and experiment with, so it’s a real shame it isn’t on Android yet. This, and some choice patches is all that’s stopping it from being the ultimate contender to Slay the Spire’s throne. For more games like Dimension of Dreams, see our list of games like Slay the Spire on mobile.
Naturally, the only thing that could knock Crypt of the Necrodancer off its coveted top spot would be more Crypt of the Necrodancer. The Amplified version released in April 2019 contains both the original game as well as all DLC and add-on content from the PC version. There’s a new protagonist to take control of, Nocturna, along with new enemies, music, and new levels. This is easily the definitive version of one of the best roguelikes of this generation, and now there really is no excuse to not get involved if you haven’t already.
It’s amazing what you can do when you take two seemingly by-the-numbers tropes and package them into something genuinely interesting. Your uber-powerful vampire may not seem that special as it terrorises society in a replayable game, but the fact that you’re doing it over countless generations is not something you see every day. In Immortal Rogue, your job is to wake up periodically and harvest human civilisation. Because reasons.
The game struggles at times from a narrative perspective, but the tactical choices you make as you slaughter your way through an age do have consequences on ages to come. Depending on who you kill, or don’t kill, enemies can appear radically different. This is an addictive, one-handed game that evokes the best of what the genre can offer.
Fair, balanced, and as advertised is our elevator pitch for Card Crusade. In a niche that includes Dream Quest, Slay the Spire, Meteorfall, and others, there’s little here we haven’t seen before, but it’s a stable and competent enough game to scratch that same satisfying itch for a short spell. Pick one of several classes and delve into the dungeon, discovering loot and spells along the way, aiding you in repeat playthroughs. It’s got its share of mediocrities, but also plenty of innovation as well.
Battles have an unusual tempo to them. Of course, it’s always best to clear the field as soon as possible, but the gameplay usually occurs in bursts of activity, with some turns devoted to healing and survival, while others see you playing an especially strong card to eliminate a key foe. Here Card Crusade breaks with longstanding roguelike tradition and does not offer full healing upon level-up or floor clear, which means damage suffered becomes persistent. This is one of the game’s smartest choices, adding a sense of pressure while simultaneously rewarding clean strategy and play. For more deck-based drama, browse our picks for the best mobile card games!
Released towards the end of last year, MIYAMOTO is an interesting blend of turn-based strategy, card mechanics, and roguelike gameplay, where the primary fault is that it’s all-too-brief. Eight levels pit you against progressively tougher enemies, as you battle your way to defeat their leader. If either your leader or the enemy’s dies, it’s game-over. Beating levels nets you coins that you can use to invest in better leaders.
The card mechanics are perhaps a bit token; there’s no way to interact with your deck of troops, but every unit is varied and unique, and the small 4×4 arena makes for some really tight tactical engagements. It a fast-paced game, as you throw your units into battle as quickly as possible, filling as many spaces around your leader as possible, so you can place troops ever deeper into an opponent’s territory. If you’re looking for something short and sweet, MIYAMOTO is an excellent new addition to your roster.
The hoplites of history aren’t usually considered lone wolves or heroes, but this is exactly the role that Hoplite casts you in: one nameless figure on a tight hexagon-based quest to retrieve the golden fleece. As you soldier across levels of escalating difficulty, you visit temples to get incremental bonuses. The movement and decision-making is performed with a series of swipes alongside the odd special ability. These abilities can be simple yet profound, a little deus ex machina bestowed each level, while the skill synergies are tantalizing enough to draw you in, yet fiendishly difficult to achieve, and will keep even veterans engaged.
The winter is harsh and full of children in Road Not Taken. You, a sackcloth-clad stranger, take your torch and use what precious energy you have to brave the elements, finding and rescuing each child. Along the way, you’ll have to fend off wolves and spiteful ghosts, scavenge for food, and find materials to make campfires. Each step drains energy; more so if you’re carrying items, so the whole game is turn-based, with a soft cap on the number of steps; as energy can be replenished by eating various foodstuffs.
The procedural generation behind each run really shows off the game’s handcrafted puzzle levels. This hybrid game wears many hats, though is primarily a puzzler with crafting elements and a dash of combat.
In a quest to save the galaxy, Faster Than Light sees you power up your ship, quest for a handy crew, a devastating array of weapons, and sometimes just a spot of fuel. Real-time with pause combat works around cooldowns, with each battle encounter ending once the enemy ship is destroyed or its crew incapacitated. Honestly, the ship is the real hero, suffering hull breaches and one HP scrapes while slowly building power till it can slay the beast. The chiptune beats and graphics are neither wholly retro, nor AAA trendy, but instead create their own cool aesthetic.
Dream Quest is simple: proceed through three levels as a chosen class, and build a deck strong enough to escape the realm of dreams. But like its namesake, the twists and turns this progression takes are strange and wonderful. Roguelikes typically rely on random events and imperfect knowledge, yet Dream Quest transforms these uncertainties into a must-play challenge for strategy buffs.
The total card pool is modest and manageable, but in total produces a surprising variety of synergies and unique challenges. Inscrutable sphinxes, malicious mimes, and immortal hydras, all make an appearance as foes, offering show-stopping battles. Dream Quest’s endgame is also supremely satisfying.
The result of Keith Burgen’s careful tinkering and experiments, Auro is a roguelike that hinges around bumping monsters and creating spell combos. The prince must save the kingdom, judiciously using his magic and skills across this hex-based battler. Speed, precision, and efficiency are paramount, and score-chasing is the measure of success. Not praised enough, and an android exclusive to boot.
With a sense of scale, while balancing tactical combat with long-term investments, Crowntakers needn’t even be played as a roguelike at all. For one, its alternate play mode is a persistent RPG with unlockables. The emphasis on individual decisions in the game is paramount, from the exploration phase to the combat. But its limitations lie in how carelessly it hides information from the player, about enemy abilities, for example. In short, an excellent, refreshing roguelike RPG that, while outmatched by others, remains a distinct favorite. Check our list of the best mobile RPGs for more like Crowntakers.
This hack ‘n slash dungeon running roguelike is one of the most popular in recent memory, and made a pretty big splash when it launched on PC back in 2017. Since then it has made its way to Android and iOS. In the game you play as a re-animated corpse of sorts, making its way through an ever-shifting castle trying out different combat combinations and synergies on the enemies and bosses who inhabit it.
Despite its unassuming look, Downwell possesses the ability to thrill just as much as any other game on this list. It’s a propulsive, intensely challenging roguelike that sees you falling down a monster-infested well with a pair of ruddy gun-boots strapped to your feet. It’s just as awesome as it sounds, especially as you continue to bolster your abilities in the leadup to your epic battle against the game’s final boss.
That’s all the games we’ve got! If you want some more card-based roguelikes, be sure to browse our list of games like Slay the Spire on mobile. You can also actually get Slay the Spire on the App Store now. We hope you find something enjoyable to play!
Publisher Raw Fury has cut the ribbon on a new DevResources Page, and in doing so shared a valuable treasure trove of information including templates for publishing agreements, pitch decks, outsourcing agreements, financial projections, and more.
Though more folks have spoken up about what developers should look for in things like publishing agreements lately, information on those sort of documents can often be tricky to find.
Transparency on this front makes for better industry, allowing devs to make more informed decisions when it comes to signing publishing agreements for their own games.
Raw Fury notes in a blog post that its this exact line of thinking that inspired the team to publish these resources. Doing so also aims to lower the game industry’s barrier of entry by providing resources (translated into seven different languages) to developers where some of this info might be more difficult to come across.
“Learning which sorts of deals were out there was tough, if not impossible, unless you knew the right people who could then share that information (broadly) with you,” explains the Raw Fury team. “We believe having publisher contracts out in the open helps level the playing field, and allows devs to have a more intimate understanding of the machinations of different deals when they start looking for partnerships.”
“We hope sharing this knowledge can help combat shady practices where predatory people and companies fleece devs by virtue of this knowledge being so scarce, trapping developers in bad deals through the obscurity of legal jargon. When you’ve been in the industry for a while you start hearing the horror stories, and while this is not going to end all of that – it is a step in the right direction.”
Look, I could waste all of our time trying to scrape together some desperately unoriginal jape about about how 2020 has ground the collective spirit of the human race into a fine paste, proven without a shadow of a doubt we’re occupying ‘The Worst Timeline,’ or ruined future seasons of Black Mirror by overshadowing whatever hellish future Charlie Brooker could possibly dream up.
I’m not going to do that, though. At this point, I’m running on fumes and can barely muster a coherent pun, let alone a rousing introduction to an end-of-year listicle. I mean, we both know the score at this point. You want to see if one of your favorite games makes an appearance on this critically meaningless list (which you’re probably reading on the toilet), and I want to fuel my sense of self-importance by waxing lyrical about some of the digital comfort food that made this year vaguely bearable.
We’re all adults here, and there’s no shame in calling a spade a spade — so let’s cut to the chase and get to it. Here are the five video games that stood out during the armpit stain of a year that was 2020.
I played Animal Crossing for almost 200 hours this year. Was that time well spent? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy slinking out of bed at the crack of dawn to see whether I’d won the turnip lottery and search Nook’s Cranny for aesthetic delights? That’s a tough one. Is it normal to spend hours meticulously conceptualizing and building an island just to make fictional animals happy? Well, when you put it like that…
Okay, so looking back I suppose Animal Crossing largely succeeded in turning me into a husk of a human being. A hollow mouth-breather whose sole purpose on this planet was to horde furnishings, design t-shirts, schmooze peppy fauna, and occasionally eat. Yet, despite that long-awaited realization, it also came to define one of the most turbulent times of the year.
It offered a genuine social outlet back in March and April, when COVID-19 finally got the respect it deserved from nations around the world, resulting in lockdowns, restrictions, and a distinct lack of human contact. It brought people together at a time when they couldn’t be further apart, and for that I’ll always be grateful to Nintendo’s alarmingly moreish slice-of-life simulator — even if I haven’t touched it in months.
What can I say about Apex Legends at this point that hasn’t already been said? This isn’t the first time Respawn’s last-team-standing shooter has appeared on my list, and for good reason. Every year I wonder if the game will finally lose steam and crumble under the weight of its own success, and every year the answer is a resolute ‘no.’ Respawn just keeps raising the bar.
It’d be easy to talk about how the studio deftly introduced a new map, an expanded armory, fresh-faced characters, and even vehicles without throwing the game off kilter, and make no mistake, that’s a huge achievement. Yet, once again, the core gameplay of Apex remains its crowing achievement. The shooter’s interlocking systems — built around precise gunplay, deft movement, and versatile abilities — are akin to a fine-tuned V8 engine at this point.
There’s not a single mechanic that feels surplus to requirements. Each design choice (from the duration of abilities to unique running animations) feels like it was agonized over for decades with the purpose of striking a impossibly precise balance between risk, reward, teamwork, and skill. It’s a meticulous approach that continues to deliver the goods, so here’s to you, Respawn.
Mediatonic knocked it out of the park with Fall Guys. The studio’s overwhelmingly endearing take on the battle royale format proved you can do more with the genre than ask players to blast each other to smithereens. The concept at play here is simple: waddle your way through a series of solo and team-based slaloms packed with all manner of madcap traps in a frantic bid to be the first to cross the finish line.
It’s essentially the video game equivalent of shows like Takeshi’s Castle and Wipeout, and succeeds in tapping into the same zany, unpredictable energy that made those series so popular. Of course, there’s more to Fall Guys than its impeccably crafted, barmpot obstacle courses — many of which have taken on lives of their own on the meme-fuelled Twittersphere.
It also packs plenty of heart thanks to some whip-smart character and sound design that turned the game’s bouncing beans into the real stars of the show. There’s something almost hypnotic about watching swarms of those rotund, hapless creatures squeak and scramble over each other before being sent packing by an inflatable hammer the size of a fridge, knowing full well that you could (and likely will) be next. Edge-of-your-seat moments like those are the bread and butter of Fall Guys, and helped transform the bumble royale into bona fide gaming gold.
As next-generation hysteria reached fever pitch, few people were talking about Astro’s Playroom, the unassuming 3D platformer that came pre-loaded on every PlayStation 5. In retrospect, that was a blessing in disguise, because it meant those lucky enough to get their hands on the hefty unit got to experience one of the best console launch titles ever made with completely fresh eyes.
Team Asobi’s nostalgia-drenched jaunt is first-and-foremost designed to introduce players to the unique capabilities of the DualSense gamepad. That alone made it the first proper ‘next-generation’ experience I played this year, with the game providing a perfect showcase for the controller’s pinpoint haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. It’s impossible to convey just how much those features added in terms of immersion, but trust me when I say that after blitzing through Astro’s Playroom with the DualSense firing on all cylinders, conventual controllers and their bare bones rumble feel woefully mundane.
Astro’s Playroom is more than a glorified tutorial, though. It’s a compelling experience in its own right, chock full of dynamic levels ripe for exploring, a plethora of collectibles, a hub-world filled with secrets, testing boss battles, and a lead character that’s more than deserving of their very own franchise. The only question at this point, is whether Asobi Team will be given the chance to make good on that promise and gift the world a proper blockbuster sequel. Make it happen, Sony.
Insomniac’s next-generation debut is gourmet comfort food. It’s the perfect compliment to the Parker-centric outing that launched in 2018, and delivers exactly what you’d expect from a follow-up to one of the best titles of the last console generation — which is to say slick combat, delirious web-swinging, fist-pumping hero moments, and classic origin story with a whole lot of heart.
Sure, it’s pretty much more of the same. But when that means you get to spend more time hurtling through Insomniac’s gorgeous recreation of snow-covered New York (this time with ray-tracing), while making frequent pit-stops to beat criminals to a pulp by tapping into all-new powers like venom blasts, invisibility, and holograms, why would you complain?
Perhaps the biggest reason I adore Miles Morales, however, is that it brings some much needed representation to Marvel’s video game universe. I’ve got nothing against Peter Parker (I actually quite like the guy), but how many times have we seen his story play out? By letting Miles and his family have their moment in the spotlight, Insomniac has shown it’s possible to make someone other than a quiff-toting white dude your protagonist.
As was the case when Squre Enix made Kamala Khan the focus of its Avengers game earlier this year, it’s a small step in the right direction, and one I hope our industry will continue to build on as it looks to become more include and representative, while inspiring others to do the same.
“I try to insure that nothing I make wastes the players’ time by having them do things that aren’t productive or creative.”
– For Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, designing engaging games starts with respecting the player experience.
As noted in the opening paragraphs of The New Yorker’s recently published interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, its not often that the elusive designer sits down for a candid conversation like the one captured in the story.
In it, Miyamoto shares a rare look at how moments with his family reflect what’s important to him as a designer, offering fellow game makers a peek at how kindness, respect, and warmth inform the design of some of Nintendo’s most iconic games.
Following his own experiences as a parent, Miyamoto muses on the designer’s responsibility to create an engaging game without demanding too much of a person’s life. For him, creating that experience boils down to designing to provoke a player’s innate curiosity without taking advantage of it.
“It’s kind of hard to build a game where the player can quit anytime. Human beings are driven by curiosity and interest. When we encounter something that inspires those emotions, it’s natural to become captivated,” Miyamoto tells The New Yorker.
“That said, I try to insure that nothing I make wastes the players’ time by having them do things that aren’t productive or creative. I might eliminate the kinds of scenes they’ve seen in every other game, or throw out clichés, or work to reduce loading times. I don’t want to rob time from the player by introducing unnecessary rules and whatnot.
“The interesting thing about interactive media is that it allows the players to engage with a problem, conjure a solution, try out that solution, and then experience the results. Then they can go back to the thinking stage and start to plan out their next move. This process of trial and error builds the interactive world in their minds. This is the true canvas on which we design—not the screen. That’s something I always keep in mind when designing games.”
Find the full interview on The New Yorker for more from Miyamoto on his leadership style, design considerations, and desire to foster kindness in the world.
