This week at Bungie, a collision course was set.

With the launch of Season of the Worthy, Guardians are heading into the wild to discover lost Seraph Bunkers and power up Rasputin’s defenses to take on this new threat. Here is a quick look at some of what you can expect during the new Season of Destiny:

Before we embark on the first TWAB of the new Season, we’d like to acknowledge some feedback that we’ve been seeing in the wild. We had a large change to emblems and stat trackers, which we’ll be talking about later in the TWAB. We’re also seeing some discussion on the new weapons of the season, and lack of Ritual Weapons for Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit. The team is currently reviewing and discussing the feedback, and we will be looking to talk about our goals for weapons in a future TWAB.

There are a variety of other topics, from Eververse to armor mods, which we’re collecting feedback on and discussing internally as a team. While we don’t have any specific changes to announce at this time, we wanted to make sure you know that we see the feedback and are actively discussing this internally. Once we have more information, we’ll be sure to let you know.

It’s been a wild launch week, but we’re just getting started. Tomorrow’s Friday and the day isn’t just reserved for Xûr anymore. Trials returns, and we’ve got a bit to talk about to get you prepared.

Trials Returns

In case you still haven’t heard. Trials of Osiris returns this Season. The first weekend of action-packed high-stakes PvP starts tomorrow. Let’s set the mood, shall we?

For everyone not familiar with Trials of Osiris, here’s a quick rundown of what to expect. The game mode is 3v3 Elimination, using the same rules showcased in the last few Seasons. The key difference is that Saint-14 will be calling the matches, and now your Power matters. You must be 960 Power to participate. Your Trials Passage, or “card” is your ticket in. Try to get as many wins as possible before you hit three losses and have to start over. Earn a flawless victory by winning seven matches with no losses. You can reset your Trials Passage at any time by accessing the item in your quests, or on the Trials of Osiris activity node.

One change from the previous Trials of Osiris is that there are no Boons that you will need to purchase and apply. Instead, there will be five different Trials Passages you can choose from that offer different bonuses built in like forgiving one loss per run or granting bonus experience from wins that increase with the number of wins on a ticket.

Players will also be able to earn Trials Tokens to turn into Saint-14 to increase their reputation and earn Trials Engrams. Any Tokens that a player doesn’t spend that week will be removed when Trials ends at the next weekly reset so spend them if you got them.

Now go and shine bright as beacons of light.

B&

New server-side security features have been deployed specifically for Trials of Osiris, and we hardened our network layer to make it more resilient to network manipulation. We’ve also increased our staffing to be able to handle the review and banning of cheaters.

Because the ongoing battle with cheating is fought primarily with information, we can’t go into exact details on our methods which might tip off would-be cheaters on ways to get around them. We can assure you we take cheating seriously and will continue to work to both prevent it and punish any offenders.

Eyes up…

Tracker Tracking

In Season of the Worthy, all emblems have been converted to use our new stat trackers. That means all emblems will be inspectable and can have trackers equipped or not.

When designing this system, our overall goal is to provide players more ways and options to show off their accomplishments. Our first selection of stats were determined by prioritizing stats that represented a skill that could be improved week-over-week or Season-over-Season and be an accomplishment that players would want to display that was meaningful to other players. Because of that, some stats that couldn’t be completed or improved any longer weren’t included.

We believe in these requirements in principle, but strictly applying them retroactively unfairly removed your ability to show off accomplishments that you could flaunt in Seasons prior. It was a change made with good intention, but was the wrong way to roll out a new system. We’ve identified some stats that can be added back in a future patch, and wanted to share them with you. We are currently planning to add these stat trackers back in an update later in the Season.

Seasons

Account

Crucible

Destinations

This list isn’t complete yet and we plan to add to it before the update is released. As a note, none of the stats that were previously tracked have been lost. We’re still storing them all. Some stats would take a bit more work to return to the fold, and we’d love to see more player feedback to help us prioritize which you’d like to see return in the future. Feel free to sound off on the Bungie.net forums, DTG Subreddit, or even Twitter. We’ve got eyes … everywhere.

Which emblem stats did you find most valuable, and why?

As always, thank you for the feedback surrounding this feature. We’re excited for players to mix and match different stats with different emblems, and are eager to improve the feature in future updates.

Merci Beaucoup

This past week several players from the French community showed the kindness and generosity of Guardians by putting on a charity event. Here is our Community Manager Epyon with a quick recap of the event.

Epyon: This past weekend was a special time for the French community and I wanted to thank all the amazing people involved in the Unitystreamzz charity event and the whole French community. French content creators put on a 72-hour livestream marathon. Their goal was to help Camille, a daughter of one of the members of our community who contracted leukemia a few years ago. She’s on her way to recovering but the French community wanted to help her smile again. To say that they achieved their goal would be an understatement.

During these 72 hours of livestreaming, more than 6,000 viewers watched some of their favorite Guardians taking up challenges set up by themselves or the community. Those viewers also donated a total of 10,724 euros (around 12,200 dollars).

It was pretty amazing to see all these people gather and do such great things. I’m blessed to be part of this community. Thank you to Line and Yoda from ZombiesFaktory, Scalap, Psmen, Kidadou, Chunklaw, GiJohndo, Morrigh4n, Merj1, Jupil, Psmen, Tutuu, Chunklaw, Kidadou, Marston, Jonwito, Ippo, Mr_Wolf45, Puxian555, Ashaya. Also, a special thanks to all the moderators, Teyzyl, Donovan,Lou_Lou, ATrlfe, Stark, PFonsde, Louloutte, Wiphy, Didigatari, and Kinkinpower, who did tremendous work helping out with the contests and prize drawings. And double thumbs up to ZoulyZoo, who organized the event and led the way.

This weekend, you all became legends.

Player Support Report

A new season brings new things to do and new things to learn. The Player Support team has info you may be in need of.

This is their report.

MAIN QUEST AND CHARACTERS

Players have been asking how they can acquire the Seasonal quest on their alternate characters. Only one character can unlock the EDZ Bunker, but once they complete the “Raising Our Defenses” quest by purchasing an EDZ Bunker Upgrade, all characters can acquire the “Seraph Warsat Network” quest from Rasputin.

DESTINATION PORT UPDATE

We’ve updated the Port Forwarding section of our Network Troubleshooting Guide. PC players experiencing BEAVER/MONGOOSE errors, empty Seraph Towers, or an inability to join fireteams may need to update their UDP Destination Ports.

WEBSITE CODE OF CONDUCT UPDATE

The Player Support, Community, and Bungie.net teams have been working closely together to update our website’s Code of Conduct Policy to help foster a friendlier and more welcoming environment.  Along with the update, we’ve created an Explanations article that provides a more thorough definition of each rule.

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

• Swapping energy on a fully Masterworked and modded armor piece will incorrectly show that it can no longer be upgraded. If this occurs, please exit and re-enter the details screen.
• The Planetary Material Auto-Collection Bunker Upgrade is not awarding the correct number of planetary resources.
• For the EDZ Seraph Bunker Upgrade, Tier 1 requires completing challenges from Zavala, Shaxx, the Drifter, Banshee-44, or Hawthorne.
• Interacting with the statue of Sjur Eido in the Shattered Throne may cause crashes.
• Faction Rally Ornaments cannot be applied to their respective class items.
• We’re investigating crashes issues occurring in Gambit for players on PS4 and Steam.
• The Ward of Dawn ability for Code of the Protector Void Titans is not generating three Orbs of Light on activation.
• The Virtuous Greaves Titan Ornament lost its glow effect.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Clutch

Last week, we asked you to share your favorite clips from Destiny’s Trials of Osiris in honor of its return. We have been digging through the #TrialsReturns hashtag to pick out a few of our favorites to share with you. Oh, and as a bonus, everyone mentioned below is taking home a MOTW emblem. Just make sure you reply to the tweet you shared with you and your fireteam’s Bungie.net profiles so we know where to send them.

So on the eve of Trials returning, let’s reminisce.

Movie of the Week:  Stay down

Honorable Mention: With Your Final Breath

Honorable Mention: Hone Your Craft

Honorable Mention: Counter Super

Here we go. One more sleep until Trials of Saint-14 … err, Osiris makes its long-awaited debut. Do you have your fireteam ready? You only have a few more hours to make ready. We’ll be watching as teams face off in hopes of earning a visit to the new Lighthouse.

<3 Cozmo

Discord is temporally allowing more users to join individual screen share sessions, a move intended to help individuals and teams better handle their usual tasks while working remote during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s a helpful feature for teams that might already communicate using the chat platform, or for the many studios going remote to help staff stay healthy and now suddenly finding themselves figuring out the logistics of managing a remote workforce.

Limits for both Discord’s screen share and Go Live streaming features are upped from 10 to 50 people for a few months as more and more game development studios and individuals turn to remote work to prevent the spread of the coronavirus currently making its way through multiple countries.

“We know a lot of you around the world are currently using Discord to keep in touch and preform daily tasks from keeping up with classes to working from home. We want to help make your world a little less stressful,” explains an update from the Discord team. “We’ll keep this limit up while it’s most critically needed.”

When developers port games to the Nintendo Switch, changes often need to be made.

The console is less powerful than the competing boxes from Sony and Microsoft, and certainly can’t keep up with gaming PCs, so tweaks to graphics and performance are essential. Its main pitch is its portability, so devs have to optimize their games to look good on 60” TVs and on the handheld’s tiny screen. And, if devs are feeling adventurous, they may even consider adding support for the Switch’s built-in gyroscopic controls.

But, it is rare for a developer to go so far as to change their game’s main mechanic. Yet, that’s exactly what Observation developer, No Code, did when they brought their debut game, Stories Untold, to Switch in January.

Originally released on PC in 2017, Stories Untold is an atmospheric text adventure that draws on the parser-based games of the ‘80s–think Zork, A Mind Forever Voyaging and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Those games relied entirely on text (and sometimes packed-in “feelies”) to evoke a sense of place. To advance their stories, they tasked players with typing simple verb/noun pairs like “open door” into a monochromatic DOS interface.

Stories Untold adapted the text adventure for the modern era. It still asked players to type commands, but it contextualized its stories within a sumptuously rendered 3D world. In one section, you were a player at a computer, watching as your commands impacted the world around you. In another, you were an inexperienced scientist in a lab, learning commands to run tests on an unidentified object. One section tasked you with scrolling through microfiche to interpret Morse code. The context consistently changed, and with it, the environment surrounding your computer. The one constant? You were always pecking away at a keyboard.

But, for the game’s Switch release this year, No Code removed typing entirely. Instead, the studio replaced it with a menu-based approach that wouldn’t look out of place in a point-and-click adventure game. In the Switch version, the player selects from a variety of verbs like “use,” “open” or “go” and then pairs the selected verb with a conditionally available noun. Whereas Stories Untold on PC drew from the adventure games of the ‘80s, Stories Untold on Switch draws from the adventure games of the ‘90s.

“We looked at old Lucasarts games for inspiration, where essentially (and sometimes literally) the player is clicking on words instead of typing them,” said No Code creative director, Jon McKellan.

“You could look at Monkey Island and type ‘Go to Tavern’ and it would still make sense, as if you had clicked ‘Go To’  and then click[ed] on the tavern. It’s the same thought process of combining nouns and verbs.  So we felt that input system was the best design for interactions, but not necessarily the right one for the experience. That’s why we decided to have the string still type in a more complete sentence. So if you choose ‘Look’ + ‘Car,’ the virtual player would type ‘look at the car.’ It gave it the human element that text adventure inputs allow, and added some character back into the input system. It looks simple, but it was quite an involved process to get that right. The key thing is that the input system we settled on was not only easier to use, but still thematically ‘retro’ – it’s still an old-fashioned way of playing an adventure, even if it’s not quite text adventure anymore… We wanted to keep the retro-theme, so [we] looked to the past for answers, as always!”

Of course, altering the game’s core mechanic is an extreme solution, and No Code didn’t start there. The team considered simulating a keyboard, so that players would use the D-pad to select and spell out words. But, it ruined the look and feel that No Code had achieved in the PC version. While it was more ‘faithful,’ it wasn’t fun.

“I had played with some on-screen keyboard designs but it felt even worse. It’s no fun typing out a command, letter by letter, slowly, and finding out you spelled ‘look’ wrong or something,” McKellan said.

“Getting something wrong in text adventures is an authentic part of the experience, to be honest, trial and error. But that’s awful when the action of inputting is garbage. The other factor was that on screen keyboards tend to take up a lot of space on screen, and it’s important to remember that Stories is a 3D environment game with stuff going on, clues to be seen, atmosphere to build. Covering the screen with UI every 30 seconds just demolished the experience… The solution had to be something compact that could be kept out of the way of the world around it and only brought up when it mattered. That’s why it’s not on the screen all the time either. If we left it on screen for the duration of the text sections, you would assume that the only real gameplay is happening in that box, when that isn’t really the case–you are looking at the room for answers too.”

As a result, McKellan said that few alternatives–which included radial menus and context sensitive lists situated along the side of the screen–made it further than quick sketches or mock-ups in Adobe Illustrator. Instead, the team focused on “re-engineer[ing] the entire game under the hood for the text sections,” a serious undertaking that No Code didn’t even begin to seriously work on until after they had shipped Observation in early 2019. This change was a serious undertaking, but it did open up a major opportunity that the parser-based approach of the PC version had precluded.

“The biggest issue is that we couldn’t localize the original game with free text input, because recognizing what the player has typed in 12 languages is not easy. We could look for words like ‘open’ and ‘door’ and say, ‘Ok the player is opening the door,’ even if they typed ‘I would like to open the door.’ However, in Russian, for example, they don’t say ‘open’ and ‘door’ as separate words, they have a word for ‘opendoor.’ So we would have to build a unique text parser and game logic for each language, which is hard for any studio and impossible for ours due to size and budget,” McKellan said. 

For context, No Code is just 12 people, and only two or three were working on the port at any given time.

“The pro of this new system was that we could finally localize! Because the nouns and verbs were presented separately rather than in a sentence, we could translate them more literally, and when the virtual player types in the chosen action, that can be localized in a solid natural way that doesn’t affect the logic. That’s why Switch version is available in 12 languages but PC isn’t,” McKellan added. “So that was the major pro of it all. We could create a barrier between the literal input, and the action, allowing us to translate it finally.”

So, in the end, Stories Untold is a slightly different game on Switch. What was once purely a throwback to the text adventures of the ‘80s has, through a necessary mechanical alteration, grown to encompass ‘90s nostalgia, as well. As a result, the Switch version bridges a slight generational gap. But, more importantly, its embrace of a different approach to sentence structure has ensured that its stories can be told in many languages, instead of just one.

The COVID-19 pandemic – commonly known as the coronavirus outbreak – has already had a huge impact on the games industry. Certain games have been delayed, Switch stock is in short supply in some locations around the world, and most recently it’s resulted in the cancellation of E3 2020.

Now, to add to this, Niantic will be making some temporary changes to its popular augmented reality mobile game Pokémon GO, which typically requires players to go outside and socialise with each other around points of interest.

While we’ve made these updates based on the current global health situation, we also encourage players to make decisions on where to go and what to do that are in the best interest of their health and the health of their communities

To ensure its player base remains in a healthy state, Niantic is prioritising updates to “GO features and experiences” that can be enjoyed in individual settings. Habitats have been increased, incense packs (which increase the rate of spawns) now last for an hour and have been discounted by 99%, and trainers can hatch eggs twice as fast. PokéStops will also drop gifts more often and all of these changes will continue until “further notice”.

Niantic has even gone to the extent of postponing its ‘Abra Community Day’ and various other real-world events that revolve around large gatherings. Fortunately, the game’s Special Research story event featuring Genesect can still be completed individually.

Following on from the release of Super Mega Baseball 2 last July, Metalhead Software has now announced the third entry in the series – Super Mega Baseball 3 – for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam. It will include cross-play support, be priced at for $44.99 USD (or the regional equivalent), and will arrive at some point in April.

This new entry will have the “deepest on-field simulation” yet, comprehensive online and offline modes – including a new franchise mode, along with vastly refined graphics. There’s also a revamped UI, new audio, new team/character content, and stadiums with variable lighting conditions. All of it is backed by the same easy-to-learn gameplay.

Here’s what the Metalhead co-founder had to say about the new game:

This is the most well-rounded experience we’ve put together yet with a lot of content and a good variety of modes that cover single player and online gameplay. We’ve kept it simple-one purchase gets you the whole package and there are no in-game purchases.

Below is the official announcement trailer and a list of major features:

• Challenge your hand-eye coordination or relax and hit dingers with fluid gameplay that scales seamlessly from novice to beyond-expert levels of difficulty.
• Apply and refine your baseball instincts with a sophisticated baseball simulation featuring new pick-off and base stealing mechanics, wild pitches/passed balls, designated hitters, and situational player traits.
• Take in the sights and sounds of 14 richly detailed ballparks, each featuring unique day, night and alternate lighting conditions.
• Guide an evolving team to greatness over multiple seasons in the all new Franchise mode featuring player development, aging, retirement and signing/releasing of free agents.
• Compete online to win pennants and climb to higher divisions in the cross-platform Pennant Race mode.
• Create your ideal league with a comprehensive customization suite that includes season length/structure, team names/uniforms/logos, and player names/appearance/attributes.
• Play or simulate any combination of games/teams in customized Seasons and Elimination brackets, solo or with friends.

Will you be adding this game to your Switch library? Leave a comment down below.

Today Epic Games have announced the acquisition of Cubic Motion, a real-time facial animation capture company.  Cubic Motion’s technology has been used by several of the most successful games of the current generation including SpiderMan and HellBlade, as well as powering several of Unreal Engines previous GDC and SIGRAPH presentations.   This company is a good fit for Unreal Engine and 3Lateral, the 3D character creation company Epic acquired last January.

Details of the acquisition from the Unreal Engine blog:

Today we are thrilled to welcome Cubic Motion to the Epic Games family. Cubic Motion is a longtime Epic partner and a leading provider of automated performance-driven facial animation technology and services for video games, film, broadcast, and immersive experiences. By joining forces, our teams are solidifying our commitment to advancing the state of the art in the creation of believable digital humans for all Unreal Engine users.

Cubic Motion’s talent will work hand in hand with 3Lateral, developer of innovative technologies that enable digitization of human appearance and motion at unprecedented levels of realism. 3Lateral joined the Unreal Engine team in January 2019 to lead development of the state of the art in real-time capabilities for the creation of virtual humans and creatures.

“We are delighted to be joining Epic Games and look forward with excitement to this next chapter in our story,” said Cubic Motion CEO Dr. Gareth Edwards. “Together, we are uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of digital human technology, bringing ever more realism and immersion to all forms of visual entertainment.”

“Digital humans are not only the next frontier of content creation, but also the most complex endeavor in computer graphics. With Cubic Motion bringing their computer vision and animation technology and expertise to our digital human efforts, Epic along with our team at 3Lateral are one step closer to democratizing these capabilities for creators everywhere,” said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games.

Cubic Motion’s existing Persona facial capture technology is currently unimpacted by the acquisition.  You can learn more about the deal in the video below.

[embedded content]

GameDev News Unreal

<!–

–>

Symphony of the Night launched on the original Sony PlayStation (PSX) in an era that seemed to hail the end of 2D games. With Mario gone three dimensional the previous year and the Legend of Zelda soon to make the switch, releasing a 2D platformer seemed incredibly shortsighted. But Konami knew exactly what they were doing.

Of course, Symphony of the Night quickly became a cult hit and is now a frequent contender for the top of “greatest games of all time” lists. It launched not one but two well-received trilogies on Nintendo handhelds and became grandfather to its very own subgenre: the ‘metroidvania’. As the indie revolution arrived, the freedom, creativity, and room for narrative that the metroidvania formula offered within a 2D space led to an explosion of games in this style.

Where would modern indies be without Cave Story and Shadow Complex?

Emerging from this indie scene, mobile gamers have seen some phenomenal ‘metroidvania’ and metroidvania-inspired titles. Underwater variant Aquaria, beautifully animated Dust, criminally underrated Dandara, rougeish Dead Cells, the fantastic mobile exclusive Grimvalor and even Apple Arcade game Shinsekai. The continuous, iterative gameplay of the genre makes it a great fit for hardcore gamers playing on mobile. It is now the perfect time to revisit the game that inspired them all: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Presumably as part of a promotion for the third season of the surprisingly good Netflix anime series, Konami has just dropped a mobile port of Symphony executed by the experts at Dotemu. The version hitting mobile is the same one that came with PSP title The Dracula X Chronicles. Compared to the PSX original, it has an ‘improved’ script and voice acting that loses some of the original’s b-movie jankiness (including the infamous line: “What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!”) Players who remember the original may be disappointed, but overall it’s for the best. You do also get the option to play as Richter or Maria from the start.

Other differences from the classic are refined item menus that function with touch controls and higher-resolution text and (static) artwork. In terms of live assets, the game’s pixels are chunkier than the retro games that have lifted its style. Played on a larger screen, you may be surprised by how few tiny squares the original animators had to work with. That said, the animation holds up. It’s incredibly detailed and lifelike for the era, and a masterclass for today’s pixel artists.

Gamers without dedicated controllers will be stuck with on-screen controls, of course. These are not ideal – you have a simple touch pad rather than the more-intuitive swipe-anywhere controls used by games like Dead Cells. The jump button is easy to hit, but the various attack buttons are fiddly-er. There are a few allowances made to touch gamers: hotkeys are available for the spells and transformations, although one does wonder why it’s still d-pad-up+attack to use special weapons. The touch controls are also not customizable for sizing and position, which is a weird oversight for an experienced developer of emulated classic games to make.

The game works best with a dedicated controller, naturally. One bizarre choice is binding the map to a flick (in any direction) of the second analog stick, especially when L2 is just sitting there doing nothing.

But the game itself? It’s still incredibly good. You have a massive, varied castle map that’s literally twice as big as you think and packed with details that tell you a story without the need for lengthy cutscenes. It’s challenging, but not frustrating, with plenty of secrets for hardcore gamers. Combat, especially boss combat, requires thought, skill, and judicious use of your abilities. There’s some light RPG elements in building your stats and finding new equipment. Yes, there are ways to break the game and make Alucard incredibly overpowered, but honestly that’s part of the fun. This version is even enhanced with the ability to instantly continue from the last room you entered rather than get dragged back to the last save point. (If this gets you stuck in a tight spot, you can reload from the last hard save.)

At a mere three dollars at launch, this is definitely the cheapest Symphony of the Night has ever been, unless you fancy scouring garage sales for the original CD-ROM. Even with the poor on-screen controls, I’d say it’s worth trying at that price. If you missed the original, it’s a chance to experience one of the pillars of a now-trending genre. If you remember it fondly, that’s a small price to pay for the waves of nostalgia you’ll feel from hearing That Music and fighting That Boss again. If you do have a controller, you have no excuse. Get this game now. Maybe if enough people buy it, a port of Rondo of Blood will be just around the corner!

This year’s BAFTA Games Awards is the latest event to feel the effect of the ongoing concerns surrounding the new coronavirus outbreak. Rather than hosting its traditional red carpet event, BAFTA has decided to change up the format and livestream the winners online.

A statement regarding the change has been shared today, confirming that the livestream will broadcast on the same day that the original event was planned to take place, 2nd April:

Amid growing concerns over the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the number of nominees due to travel from overseas, we have made the decision to change the format of next month’s BAFTA Games Awards from a red carpet ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London to an online live stream, which will broadcast globally on the same day as scheduled (Thursday 2 April).

The health and wellbeing of our guests and our staff remain our top priority, so there will be no live audience and we are now in the process of informing all our nominees, guests, partners and suppliers of the change. The new format will include the announcement of the Games Awards winners and we look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks.

The nominees for the show were revealed just last week, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 doing particularly well for itself.

Other gaming events recently cancelled or altered by the coronavirus include GDC, the 2020 Pokémon Europe International Championships, and of course, E3 2020.