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: Bellevue, Washington

Sucker Punch is looking for a Level Designer who shares our passion for pushing creative limits and redefining expectations about what games can be. A successful candidate will have a passion for creating compelling layouts and working with a team of creative individuals. Team leadership experience is expected, with a proven track record of high-quality results.

Working closely with Environment Artists and Content Designers, you will shape environments and gameplay to create deep and meaningful player experiences.

Responsibilities

• Design and build both open world and directed layouts, from concept to polish, that are grounded and unique, delivering a compelling game experience.
• Create and iterate encounter layouts to support the navigational and combat goals for the game.
• Work closely with Designers and Environment Artists to develop, implement, and maintain building standard metrics throughout the world.
• Work with the Content Designers to develop encounter locations specific to narrative and gameplay needs.
• Integrate research and concept art into playable game spaces.
• Work closely with the Project Directors and other Leads to ensure quality across the game.
• Continuously strive to push the quality bar higher.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of developing engaging open world content.
• At least 3 years’ experience in the games industry working as a Level Designer or similar content creation experience.
• Proficient at identifying and supporting gameplay needs and constraints within an encounter layout.
• Experience developing and shipping at least one AAA console or PC game.
• Strong understanding and experience with 3D Modeling Software (preferably Maya).
• Experience building large open worlds with a focus on 3rd person action encounters a plus.
• Basic scripting ability (XML, LUA, PYTHON, etc) or competency in a programming language a plus.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills.
• An aptitude for learning new technology, level editors, scripting languages, engines, and systems; especially industry-standard content creation tools.
• Must be a self-motivated and energetic team player with a very strong work ethic and cooperative attitude.
• Position is currently open to those eligible to work in the States, and willing to relocate to Bellevue, WA.

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.

Konami has released its financial report detailing the first six months of its 2017-2018 fiscal year, showing a year-over-year increase in profit and revenue for both its Digital Entertainment branch and the company as a whole.  

For the period ending September 30, the company as a whole reported ¥115.4 billion (~$1 billion) in revenue, a 13.8 percent increase from the same period during the previous year. Likewise, Konami saw profit for the period reach ¥17.2 billion (~$151.2 million) for a 40.5 percent increase year over year. 

Konami’s Digital Entertainment branch brought in the lions share of total revenue for those first six months. That department, which oversees both its video game and card game operations, brought in ¥57.6 billion (~$506.5 million) in revenue, roughly a 28.7 percent increase from the ¥44.9 billion (~$395 million) reported during the previous year. 

Digital Entertainment also saw an increase in profit compared to the preceding year, with 2017’s numbers coming in at ¥19.3 billion (~$169.4 million) for a 24.5 percent increase. 

Konami attributes the performance in the past two quarters to “favorable reviews” for the mobile titles Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu and Professional Baseball Spirits A, “continued stable performance” from games in its global markets like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, the mobile Pro Evolution Soccer 2017, and PES Club Manager, along with the release of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018. 

Additionally, its mobile games Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links and Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 both cleared 50 million downloads during the past quarter, with Duel Links coming in at 55 million on its own. 

Going forward, the company says it expects “to provide content that enables us to deliver pleasure to customers in various regions” through an in-development PC version of Duel Links, ongoing support for its mobile titles, and what it describes as aggressive promotions within the eSports scene.

“Tonight, we fly,” I thought to myself, indulging a bit of drama as I looked forward to being one of four GMs for a mammoth session of Bully Puplit’s Night Witches RPG.

Actually, that’s a total lie. There was absolutely no equanimity, no “chill” that preceded my participation in this event at Big Bad Con–an annual indie tabletop gaming convention in California. Also, it was afternoon, not night.

Not only was the game’s creator, Jason Morningstar, one of the other GMs, but there were a grand total of sixteen people to manage. Four at each table, each comprising a “section” of our whole squadron of twenty four (each GM controlled NPC pilots as well). Though I was, obviously, responsible for my section (2-A, the fightin’ A!) I also had to manage inter-sectional drama and other players coming to me for RP with my NKVD officer.

I was more than a little nervous about taking this on, and wondering why the hells I said “yes” to this.

***

Night Witches is an RPG about the eponymous Second World War-era Soviet night bomber regiment, the infamous 588th. It was the only all-women regiment of its kind in the Soviet Union, and despite being saddled with subpar equipment and no small amount of sexism, went on to terrorize the Nazis all across the Eastern Front. Jason Morningstar has converted their story into a faithful, fascinating Powered by the Apocalypse game that manages to combine the drama of story-based RP with hard charging military strategy–cleverly managing to fold the latter into the former. All the while, you’re bombing Nazis (which is strangely controversial these days).

The eerily apposite subject matter aside, though, it’s a brilliant game and some of the most fun I’ve had with tabletop in recent years. And Jason Morningstar wanted to take its simulations to another level. He pitched the idea of a 16-player mega game to Big Bad Con, a four hour one-shot that would take the 3-5 player RPG and add enough players to roleplay a full squadron.

Big Bad Con is a charming, intimate indie RPG/LARP convention that’s quickly become one of my favorite events of the year, precisely because they experiment with stuff like this (or, as they did last year, LARPing in the woods around the hotel). People bring the big name RPGs to play–you can find a D&D or Star Wars game if you want–but the real draw is the sheer number of smaller games that get lost in the crowd of bigger conventions. No small amount of playtesting goes on here, as I’ve written about in the past. But this year I was just focused on being the best gamemaster I could be for this headlined event.

If you’ll allow me a tortured aviation metaphor, we didn’t quite stick the landing, but we ended up on the ground in one piece. There were no clear rules for how to manage play with so many people, but we all fudged it on the fly (so to speak), and it was a fascinating experience. Rather like the Night Witches themselves, we broke something and hastily reassembled it in an unofficially approved way so we could do what we needed to do.

In theory, each GM would be responsible for their Section, and occasionally field RP from other Sections as needed. I controlled a Regimental Politruk, a sort of Soviet ideological enforcement officer of the NKVD; these characters are epicentres of drama, as pilots are either snitching on each other or working to thwart aggressive and dogmatic investigations. Or both. Insofar as this sort of thing was concerned, we managed pretty well. For me the trick was to leave my Section with something to chew on when someone from another table approached looking to RP something–often, I’d either give them something that they had to hash out amongst themselves, or involve another Section in. Thus, to give myself the capacity to manage inter-table RP, I had to encourage my Section to RP with another table, thus proliferating the fun/logistical problems. But it was mostly fun.

“What fascinated me the most as a critic was the way the game, even more than is usual for tabletop RPGs, exceeded the written rules. We were flying beyond spec for quite a while. Yet, despite that, everything held together in the end.”

Section C was known for being the misfit party animals and a member of my Section went over there to RP a rather steamy encounter with the Squadron Commander, both to pursue a relationship and resolve a logistical issue. This, of course, aroused NKVD suspicion when the Commander was increasingly cited for being lackadaisical in her duties and disrespectful of the People’s airplanes, while sweeping up a different member of my Section who’d started the game under a cloud of suspicion as she was the sole survivor of her last squadron. Rumors of saboteurs abounded and the Commander was clearly living on even more borrowed time than everyone else. Night Witches is a game where one tangled mess begets ten others, and at this scale it was a messy yarnball of spicy communist drama.

The game consists of day/night cycles, with daytime being very RP focused at the airbase, and night being the bombing run. We managed to get two nights in during the four hour period we were allotted, each of them a masterclass in brinksmanship. You were required to drop at least one bomb on the target, successfully, with the Regiment’s Major setting a target for total number of bombs dropped–necessitating more than one attack run, of course.

On a particularly difficult mission that required facing the enemy fire of a rival Nazi squadron before any bombing run, my first pilot rolled so spectacularly well that everyone felt compelled to drop that second bomb. And then the third. Each successive roll, of course, was worse than the last. Injuries stacked up, more and more bullet holes riddled the jalopy fighter planes, eventually an NPC died. Then, finally, one of my players died on landing–choosing to go out in a blaze of glory. And, of course, socialising the NKVD’s interest in her to the rest of her Section.

In the end, we all made it. As players, at least. As to their characters, a memorial wall was spontaneously generated as the casualties began to pile up, if that gives any idea.

What fascinated me the most as a critic was the way the game, even more than is usual for tabletop RPGs, exceeded the written rules. We were flying beyond spec for quite a while. Yet, despite that, everything held together in the end. The moves and stats were there when we needed them, but when we needed to be flexible to accommodate a number of requests, we could manage that. There were no strict rulesets for inter-table play, but we managed to make the whole Squadron work like a more-or-less decently oiled machine. We handled what we could, and when a very late addition to our gaming group became an additional NKVD officer, we colluded to share our duties and hand things off to each other as needed.

A recent article in The New Yorker, discussing the resurgence of D&D’s popularity, touches on what made this possible. “The emphasis, even these days,” writes Neima Jahromi, “is not on [statistical] forms but on moving beyond them.” The old war between “crunch and fluff” seems to have passed; we now stand amidst a fluffy renaissance. “The structures the designers made are also simpler and more subjective. If a player thinks of something clever, you don’t have to thumb through a handbook for a strictly defined bonus.”

It was, in the end, this sort of thinking that made that 16-player Night Witches game possible–and it’s endemic not just to Morningstar’s game, but to that of so many of his contemporaries (whose work I’m at pains to highlight in this column). Game mechanics, defined as elaborate codes and formulae, can be magical; but sometimes there’s no substitute for letting the player find their own way in collaboration with others. This remains something that only tabletop can do this well.

Leading my Section in a series of battles over Poland, I came to appreciate that. It was, in the end, why I was so nervous. I had the book, I had stacks of printed papers and maps, all the paraphernalia of tabletop gaming in glorious full-color. But I knew I had to go way, way beyond the printed page with my players. And, indeed, we had to. So many of our NKVD actions, aside from the “Informal Interview,” an actual move in the printed rules, were guided by our play rather than the book.

It was nerve wracking, but, in the end, we flew.

Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.

Three years ago, Naughty Dog’s Anthony Newman took to the stage at GDC 2014 to deconstruct a complicated topic: the melee system at play in the studio’s 2013 game The Last Of Us.

It was interesting because Newman’s talk addressed both the deisgn of the system (discussing solutions to the challenges of creating an effective hybrid between gunplay and melee combat, and how those mechanics emphasized the tone and world) and the practical implementation of said system.

He delved into the technical details of how the Last Of Us team synced animations, handle memory management, and practiced efficient scripting practices. It was a neat talk that also touched on how the studio’s production process changed between Uncharted and The Last Of Us, as well as examining techniques the team used to achieve the game’s brutal aesthetic.

If that sounds like something you’d like to watch but you missed it in 2013, no worries — now you can watch it for free 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 UBM Americas

Outlast 2, which was released last month on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, casts players as a cameraman and woman working on a news story deep, deep in the back woods. There, they will find misshapen human beings, deadly cults, and unnatural forces, all of them stalking the player through the shadowy trees, dark paths, and pitch black caverns.

Pro tip: if they see you, you should run away.

It’s the chase that Outlast 2 excels at – when all of those dangerous foes are right behind the player, arms outstretched to grasp them. It’s a perfect situation to create terror, but having the player run through dark forests, twisting paths, and maze-like caves while panicked is also a recipe for video game disaster.

Getting lost, turned around, or not knowing which way to go can kill immersion and create frustration. At the same time, if the player knows where to go too easily or feels like they’re being led around, that can kill the fearful mood, too.

There is a very delicate balancing act going on behind the scenes, one that involved lots of playtesting, careful consideration of layouts, and use of sound, light, and visuals to create just the right amount of tension and direction as players run through the woods with cultists on their heels.

“There’s no magical recipe. Usually, when we as the developers feel it’s too obvious, it means it’s fine,” jokes Philippe Morin of Red Barrels, developers of the fast-paced survival horror title.

Morin’s work begins before the chase can even start, ensuring a variety of situations in order to heighten fear. “We actually try to steer away from any pattern, so players remain on edge. Sometimes it starts with a bang, and other times we progressively build it up. In other sections, it depends on how the player behaves. For example: the cornfields can actually be played without ever getting a chase.”

Certainty can lead players to feel complacent in a game’s world. Knowing that a chase sequence is coming ruins that initial shock that will carry them forward throughout the chase. Morin wanted players to be startled at times, rushing forward as a chase sequence descends on them by surprise, or because they blundered into a situation.

One key was in having no particular formula at all for how to begin. “We don’t have one magical recipe.” says Morin. Having a variety of things kick off each chase, from sudden attacks to areas of silence to places where the player instigates them, creates an uncertainty that helps enhance the fear they’re looking to create. A player who doesn’t know what is coming or what will trigger their next flight cannot mentally prepare for it.

The route the players would take for their chases was the next area for Morin to focus on. Players need a place to run through, and a straight line gets dull and predictable in a hurry. Again, though, going too much in the other direction creates its own problems, with maze-like environments frustrating the player rather than frightening them. Morin needed something in between, with players able to navigate with some of the smoothness of the straight line route, but with the uncertainty and chaos of the winding route.

“We tried many things in Outlast 2, including chases in more open layouts, others in linear corridors, and it always comes down to one thing… you have to lead players without them feeling they’re being led,” says Morin.

Morin used a handful of tricks to keep players on track. “The main tool is light.” he says. “People usually tend to follow the light when in doubt. Of course, it’s a lot easier to control when the game takes place inside a series of corridors, and it was quite a challenge to make it work in a forest only lit by a full moon, especially when so much of the game takes place in darkness and the level of darkness can vary a lot from one TV or monitor to another.”

Morin and the team used moonlight twinkling on a damp path, a stray lantern, or smoldering campfires in order to light up the wooded paths, facing the challenge of using light sources to lead in Outlast 2’s wide-open spaces. 

Again, though, it’s never just down to one trick. “Density of objects is also something we use. Players will naturally stay away from area filled with various objects and go toward open paths. Ultimately, having enemies placed where we don’t want the player to go does also the job.” says Morin.

By strategically placing clutter, bushes, overturned barrels, or stray logs on a path, Morin could create a natural-looking outdoor environment while still giving the player a clear route to take while panicked. It also wouldn’t entirely look like a clear route, offering players a place that looks less like a specific course and more like a frightening camp or woods to rush through. Guided only by natural light, debris, and monster placement, Morin could set up a course that would feel realistic, yet still lead the player down the right path.

The chase itself also carried elements of unpredictability, continuing that trend of keeping the player off-guard. It wasn’t enough to keep the player running from the people they saw – not enough to feel that you’d gotten that lead on them and were safe. Even while fleeing, Red Barrel wanted players to feel unsure.

“You have to create beats. Let the player feel they’re going to be okay and then throw something at them to temporarily slow them down or completely stop them, allowing the enemies to catch up. You play with this dynamic a few times in a sequence, mix it with an effective music track, and you’ve got the basis of a cool chase.” says Morin. “It’s kind of like sex. It can’t be full throttle from start to finish, but you also don’t want the phone to ring and create that pause that breaks the mood.” 

Maybe the player trips. Maybe more foes pop up down the path. Maybe an open path collapses, closing off the player’s planned escape route. Morin didn’t want any one sequence to feel predictable. There had to be something that would throw the player off of just running as fast as they could – something that added a little more to each chase.

“Of course, we have to throw in a monkey wrench once in a while, otherwise the game becomes stale. It may be the absence of chase music, the player getting injured, the introduction of a new ingredient, etc.” says Morin.

And what of those enemies that are chasing the player? If the player feels like they get a commanding lead on them, what’s to be afraid of? Morin played around with aspects of the sound design to ensure that, even if the player was far ahead, they wouldn’t feel like they were. “You have to the feel the presence of your pursuers.” says Morin. “It may mean that we have to exaggerate some sounds to hear the screaming, the footsteps, and the breathing of the enemies when we want them to be heard despite the chase music.”

Players can hear hammering footsteps, enemies snarling and shouting, and breathing that seems to be right in their ear. Yes, the player could look behind them with a push of a button to see how close the enemies are, but they can already tell with the audio.

“Our audio mechanics are set up to use tons of information given to us by the game – player speed, NPC proximity, different AI states – that allow us to emphasize how close or how far the enemies appear to the player to create the right amount of stress no matter what the situation is.” says Morin. 

This kind of tension is exhausting, though, and can wear a player down over time. This is why a final element for Morin was in keeping these chase sequences at just the right length. They had to frighten the player without taking too long. “We also try to make sure we don’t stretch chases for too long, so players don’t become desensitized, but that part is super-tricky because it varies a lot from one player to another.” says Morin.

All of these elements went through rigorous testing, as finding the right balance of all of these things was quite tricky, bouncing between being too obvious or not clear enough.

“It has to feel chaotic, yet intuitive. It’s a tricky balance and results may vary from one player to another.” says Morin. “We’ve seen playtests in which a majority of players would go through a sequence without a hitch, while a few players would get stuck in the same area. The question becomes, ‘Can you make it work for those players without negatively impacting the experience of those who had no issues?’ When you make it too obvious, then some players start to feel they’re on a track.”

After extended testing, Morin found that they had reached that balance, getting the player ready to be chased, leading the player without making them feel lead, and then giving an unpredictable chase that made them feel afraid of the snarling at their heels. This was what made Outlast 2 special, for Morin, and what he feels players come to the series for.

“I think horror games are about the fear of the unexpected. You don’t play an Outlast game to feel empowered and in control, you play it to get a rollercoaster ride of emotions as a character who must run for his life.”

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: Stockholm, Sweeden

Who are we?

iGotcha Studios is a small and growing independent game studio consisting of experienced and passionate developers. Our main focus is to develop location-based games for mobile platforms. Our office is located just outside the central station with an abundance of restaurants, gyms and shops within walking distance. All our employees have competitive salaries and benefits.

Now that we’ve secured a solid financial founding from reputable investors we are now looking to expand our development team!

Job Description

We’re seeking a passionate programmer ready to join an exciting, growing, studio. You should be comfortable with working across disciplines but also take initiative and independently find creative solutions to complex problems. We strive for technical excellence and need you to venture outside of your comfort zone, learning and implementing new technologies.

This is an entry- to mid-level position. Fresh graduates are welcome to apply as long as you have the necessary tech skills.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Create, develop and maintain internal web-based tools

• Pitch in if needed on game systems, including backend and game client

PERSONAL TRAITS

• Passion for playing and making games

• You are an independent quick learner who can pick up new skills in a short time-frame

• You make realistic time estimates and know your limits and weaknesses

• Quality-oriented and meticulous but you still deliver in time

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

• Experience working with source control systems such as Git

• You have a grasp of the full web stack, including but not limited to technology such as:

  • AngularJS(2) or other modern frameworks

  • Databases (NoSQL variants as well as traditional)

  • JWT or other authentication technologies

  • HTML5

  • JavaScript / TypeScript

  • Less / Sass and CSS3

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills

PREFERRED SKILLS

DESIRABLES

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.