Category: News

When developing a game that has 13 different stories in it, each with its own unique art style and gameplay mechanic, a lot of time is spent working on (and throwing out) prototypes. So there were a lot of challenges when creating <i>What Remains of Edith Finch</i> and turning it into one cohesive narrative. 

In this GDC 2018 session, Giant Sparrow’s Ian Dallas talks about how he and his team approached prototyping What Remains of Edith Finch. 

Dallas explains that the goal was for each mechanic to be something players had never seen before, but it had to be intuitive enough to grasp without tutorials.

It’s an insightful talk that’s definitely worth watching, so developers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so now that it’s freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!

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 or VRDC 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 company Informa

Game analytics company DeltaDNA has published its ad survey results for 2018, sharing data taken from a survey of 336 developers of free-to-play mobile games over a 12 month period.

The findings could be useful for mobile developers who might want some insight into how they’d like to monetize their game in the future. 

The survey revealed that even though the majority of casual and hardcore games are still earning half or more of their revenue from in-app purchases, ad revenue is finally becoming viable.

A majority of casual game developers make less than 40 percent of their revenue from ads, but 16 percent said they earned 80 percent or more from the same source.

In comparison, 70 percent of hardcore game developers said their games made more than 20 percent of revenue from ads – up from only 50 percent reporting the same amount last year.

• Developers are more confident about integrating ads, with 21 percent showing five or more ads per session.
• The number of developers who classify in-game ads as an ‘important monetization opportunity’ has grown from 39 percent in 2016 to 59 percent in 2018, indicating a cultural shift within the industry.

Project Hospital is the latest entry into the field of medical center simulations, which is usually covered in a tongue-in-cheek way, such as with both Bulfrog and Krisalis’ Theme Park Hospital and Two Point and Sega’s upcoming Two Point Hospital.

Oxymoron Games’ Project Hospital takes a more realistic approach in terms of the medicine involved, although some side aspects are simplified or even fictionalized for a better play experience. Lead programmer Jan Beneš kindly answered some questions about its development for us.

The origin of Oxymoron Games can be tracked some years back, when most of the team members were still employees in different bigger studios in Prague or Helsinki, thinking (and talking) about working on our own games one day. The experience with a variety of games from third-person action games, like Mafia II and III or Quantum Break, to different genres like sports or simulation games turned out to be really useful when starting a new project from scratch.

Reality and depth seems to have worked really well for us. Most of the recent games tackling the hospital theme are very casual and simple, their content has mostly nothing in common with real hospitals. On the other hand Project Hospital is focused on players who want a challenging approach and who want real medicine. The complexity gives you a plenty of options what to play with and what to build and a long learning curve gives you small challenges in many aspects of gameplay (easy to learn, hard to master). And all of this has a basis in real world medicine with a slight educational potential. I think this is where Project Hospital excels.

I admit that balancing this game between gameplay and reality was quite tricky, but overall gameplay should always come first. I could say that Project Hospital is as real as possible, but still just a game – and a game must be fun to play. That’s why there are no STDs or dying children, that would be just too depressing, or too specific details like vital functions where you would have to consider the values of heartbeat, blood pressure, temperature and others, because that would make the game unplayable for people without medical background (and for some of us devs as well).

Taking in account how complex the game is and how small a team we are (smaller than for example the team behind Prison Architect), it’s true that there have been some hard decisions and some originally planned features had to be simplified or postponed after release – typically variations of the same system (ambulances vs. helicopters, elevators vs. stairs).

Sometimes the reasons for going with a simpler solution were both the implementation cost and design decisions, especially when the features would make the game even more demanding for the player to understand and learn.

One of the main design pillars has been to allow the player to focus on any of the main aspects of the game while the rest will work mostly automatically. Another example would be prefabs in building mode.

The option to go hands-on with individual patients is clearly the favorite part of the game for a lot of players and a it definitely got lot of attention during development. The players can control any aspect of what happens with the patient by planning examinations and treatments, figuring out the diagnosis or assigning doctors and departments. Still, when managed correctly, the staff should be able to handle most cases independently and only notify the player if there is a problem or a crisis.

The user interface has definitely been one of two biggest challenges (second one being the complex rules of how the patients flow through the hospital, while the player can intervene at any point).

Nobody in the team had previous experience with UI design, so there has been a lot of ‘learn as you go’ along the way and many parts of the interface underwent quite a few iterations, as also the underlying systems evolved during development.

We’re happy that we managed to implement quite a few quality of life features like different levels of transparency, guides on the floor when placing objects and detailed tooltips for anything in the user interface, the whole management/logistics view turned quite nicely and in a way it presents itself almost like interactive infographics–but there are always some ideas how to improve the interface further.

The management side and especially hiring correct staff has more weight when it comes to running a hospital smoothly, but the layout of course plays an important role as well. In any game with a relatively fast time scale (our day lasts for about an hour) the walking times are really important so both the layout of the hospital, elevator placement and even layout of individual rooms matter. The effect is even more prominent with inpatients, as a nurse needs to go get a stretcher to transport the patient.

The game is built with Unity, which was a reasonable choice, but we’re basically only using the UI system and renderer and no asset store packages at all. The game itself is mostly a standalone codebase written in C# with quite a few custom systems – it’s sometimes a real lifesaver to have direct access to code for both debugging purposes and for easy changes.

For example our animation system allows us to easily create random character variations, change clothes, trigger events and we can develop specific tools as needed. Another example is pathfinding, there’s a lot of rules like access rights or elevator usage which make it impractical to use the Unity navigation system, so a custom (not very fancy) multi-threaded system based on A* is what we went with.

Haha, luckily not. Fun fact: hypochondria was one of the first testing medical conditions in the alpha version of the game and had a specific examination that was uncovering it.

One of the best parts of the experience compared to working on triple-A where everybody has a very specific role and is shielded from the outside world, was working with the community. First people who got in touch were actually professionals in the medical field who did some free consultancy for us and even helped with the medical texts in the game, like descriptions of diagnoses or symptoms.

We ran a closed beta a few months before release with a few hundred people and it really helped us catch a lot of issues early. The game shipped with eight community-translated languages (which has now grown to 13) and more are on the way. Generally this really exceeded our expectations and gave us a nice morale boost along the way.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

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[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from video game industry ‘watcher’ Simon Carless (GDC, Gamasutra co-runner), rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week’s highlights showcase an oddly busy week – so late in the year – for ‘iii’ (sorry! upscale indie!) releases. I’ve highlighted Below, Mutant Year Zero, Hades, Gris, and Ashen – all of which have standout features – with reviews in the round-up below. 

Otherwise, there’s some more ‘best of the year’, some really wonderful YouTube gems such as SoberDwarf’s ‘randomizers’ overview, and some more mainstream coverage of the game industry that isn’t actually negative or Fortnite-focused. (Well, one of them is Fortnite-focused, I guess :P)

Until next time…

– Simon, curator.]

——————

The 20 best video games of 2018 (Keza MacDonald / The Guardian – ARTICLE)
“From outlaws in turn-of-the-century America to a young woman falling tenderly in love and Norse gods going to war in spectacular style: our critics pick the best video games of the year.”

Gris is like a stunning animated movie that you can play (Andrew Webster / The Verge – ARTICLE)
“Gris opens in a world devoid of color. As a nameless, silent young woman, you traverse the desolate landscape, filled with crumbling ruins and a bleak sky, with an almost balletic sense of movement. You float and glide through the world… Gris starts out simple and stark, but ends as one of the most beautiful games ever made.”

Random Randomizers Randomizing Random Things Randomly (SoberDwarf / YouTube – VIDEO)
“Well this is… random? That’s exactly right! Today we’re taking a look at the world of Randomizers! Though what exactly is a Randomizer and what does it have anything to do with game design? And is SoberDwarf trapped in a world where he loses his own identity? Find out in this episode of Design Documentaries! [SIMON’S NOTE: this is specifically about ROM hacks that randomize, and is SUPER interesting.]”

The Epic Games Store is the best thing that could happen to Steam (Jessica Conditt / Engadget – ARTICLE)
“This is a fundamental shift for the PC gaming ecosystem, which, for more than a decade, has been dominated by Steam, Valve’s digital distribution hub. “Dominated” doesn’t even cover it — for years, Steam has been the only digital games store for many players, and its power over the PC market remains unparalleled.”

Below Is Finally Out, And It’s Not Screwing Around (Ethan Gach / Kotaku – ARTICLE)
“After spending much of that time fumbling through its mysterious world with hardly a clue as to what I should be doing, a new picture has emerged. It’s one of a game whose at times impenetrable mysteries and evocative but dread-filled world don’t seem to suffer from the march of time… [SIMON’S NOTE: too early for Metacritic, but Steam reviews have majority enthused fans, minority people complaining of slow/methodical pace. Which is probably intentional from a spooky perspective?]”

KeyForge: The red-hot card game where every deck is unique—and unchangeable (Charlie Theel / Ars Technica – ARTICLE)
“As a concept, KeyForge is enthralling. The game is the latest effort from legendary Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield—and the big idea here is that every sealed deck is unique. Decks are pre-constructed and can’t be altered; there’s no card chasing, and there’s certainly no over-arching “meta” game that must be respected. This is a head-to-head two-player battler like no other.”

Ashen is a beacon of light against the dark night (Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly – ARTICLE)
“When battling darkness, either internal or corporeal, you’re not alone. In the world of Ashen, a RPG game that justifiably earned comparisons to Dark Souls after its surprise debut during this year’s Game Awards, it’s actually dangerous to go it alone. [SIMON’S NOTE: early Metacritic looking positive enough.]”

IF Comp Post-Mortems (Emily Short / Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling – ARTICLE)
“Now that some time has elapsed since 2018 IF Comp has closed, a number of authors have followed up with post-mortems (and in some cases, there have also been a few game updates based on player feedback).”

Battlefield V is the best Battlefield campaign in years, and Tirailleur proves it (Xalavier Nelson Jr. / RockPaperShotgun – ARTICLE)
“It’s a shame that the opening of Battlefield V is a bit of a po-faced mess, because it provides a wildly inaccurate idea of what you can expect from its singleplayer portion. The Battlefield V vignette campaigns are, together, one of the best FPS campaigns in years. One of its tales, about colonised soldiers sailing thousands of miles to fight for a land they’ve never known, proves it.”

GDC plays Hades with Greg Kasavin (Bryant Francis / GDC / YouTube – VIDEO)
“The GDC team sits down with Supergiant Games creative director Greg Kasavin to discuss Hades, the company’s new roguelike game! [SIMON’S NOTE: Which is Epic Store exclusive right now, interestingly enough.]”

Video Games Level Up (1A – PODCAST)
“And the world of video games is just as broad as the film industry. There are indie games and big budget games — games that feel like a graphic novel and games that play through like a blockbuster movie… What does the future of this six-decade-old industry look like? What do video games tell us about our culture?”

Fortnite Is so Much More Than a Game (Keith Stuart / Great Escape / Medium – ARTICLE)
“You’ll know it from the media coverage that focuses on its “addictive” gameplay and the slew of articles warning about its “compulsion loop” and “dopamine trap.” And while the central premise really is compelling, what the alarmist coverage often misses is that Fortnite is not really a game about shooting people. It’s a game about escape.”

Clark Tank: Epic Store, Steam Revenue Changes & Hades! (Ryan Clark / Brace Yourself Games – VIDEO)
“This week (recorded December 7, 2018), we take a look at the new Epic Store, check out how Steam is changing revenue sharing for indies, and we play and analyze Unreal Store Early Access game Hades by Supergiant Games! [SIMON’S NOTE: Clark Tank is back with LOTS of very useful sales analytics & smartness in it.]”

GlassLab Set Out to Prove Games Could Assess Learning. Now It’s Shutting Down (Tony Wan / EdSurge – ARTICLE)
“Now, one of this decade’s highest-funded efforts to support an educational gaming industry is coming to a close. Last week, GlassLab, an online portal for educational games, announced that it will be sunsetting its platform on Dec. 20. The announcement was made in an email from LRNG, a Redwood City, Calif.-based nonprofit that owns GlassLab’s assets.”

Catching up with indie studio Tomorrow Corporation (John Harris / Gamasutra – ARTICLE)
“In this interview, Kyle Gabler, co-founder of 2D Boy and one of three cofounders of Tomorrow Corporation (Little Inferno, Human Resource Machine, 7 Billion Humans ), talked with us about his studio’s work past and present, giving us an inside look at one of the studios that helped define what “indie” means in video game development.”

How Return of the Obra Dinn Works (Game Maker’s Toolkit / YouTube – VIDEO)
“The most fascinating game of 2018 looks like a relic from the early days of Mac gaming, comes from the dude who made Papers, Please, and is the best detective game I’ve played so far.”

Ars Technica’s ultimate board game gift guide, 2018 edition (Aaron Zimmerman, Nate Anderson & Tom Mendelsohn / Ars Technica – ARTICLE)
” For 2018, we’ve updated our massive 10,000-word guide by adding new entries, deleting others, and generally just bringing things up to date with our current recommendations. Entries are organized generally into categories, so you can jump around to the stuff that interests you most (some games could arguably be included in several categories, of course).”

Here’s what happened when we tried to bet on esports at our local bookies (Benjamin Burns / Eurogamer – ARTICLE)
“We have an odd relationship with gambling in the UK. You’d be hard-pressed to find a high street or city centre that doesn’t have at least a couple of bookmakers’ shops mixed into it, offering bets on everything from horse racing and football to whether or not Kate Winslet will cry if she wins an Oscar (yes that was a real thing). But how does esports fit in?”

Amid Talk of Violent Influence, Video Games as Therapy Often Goes Unnoticed (Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter – ARTICLE)
“Hot tea, essential oils, Xanax … video games? One of these things may seem out of place, but while many of the most popular games and genres are fueled by violent imagery that critics allege contributes to real-life violence and aggression, a massive catalog of nonviolent, relaxing alternatives has grown up in their shadow.”

Wot I Think – Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (Alec Meer / RockPaperShotgun – ARTICLE)
“There are at least 99 ways this could have gone horribly wrong. XCOM-ish turn-based action in an apparently shameless borrow from STALKER’s setting, but starring a talking pig and duck? An overwhelmingly nihilistic tone, but also endless use of the ‘duck sounds a bit like another, naughtier word’ gag?… And again: talking pig and duck. Mutant Year Zero’s a gem. [SIMON’S NOTE: decent Metacritic & even stronger user scores! Also, great buzz.]”

 

——————

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at tinyletter.com/vgdeepcuts – we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected] MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra & an advisor to indie publisher No More Robots, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

In this GDC 2012 talk, Halfbrick Studios’ Luke Muscat goes over the evolving process at Halfbrick Studio for updating and maintaining its popular iOS releases.

Muscat discusses how the process began all the way from Fruit Ninja’s first minor update (which accidentally crippled the game), to implementing core updates that reach millions of players per week.

The talk covers the lessons learned and strategies used to keep Halfbrick’s games in check with ever growing player expectations, so developers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so now that it’s freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!

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 or VRDC 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 company Informa