All you need to do to enter and be in with a chance of winning a download code is answering the question below, remember the studio has also heavily discounted a number of its games on the eShop at up to 94% off.
The Phaser HTML game framework just released version 3.17.0. Phaser is an excellent open source MIT licensed 2D game framework. If you are interested in getting started with Phaser, we have a tutorial video to get you started available right here.
The headline features of the 3.17.0 release include:
New Shader and BaseShader game objects make it even easier to use shaders with Phaser
DOM element game object to integrate DOM UI elements into your game
Camera Masks, for creating easy camera special effects
There are of course dozens of other improvements so be sure to read the full release notes here. The complete change log is available here. Phaser is available here, while the source code is available here.
New PS4 Limited-Edition Steel Grey Console Announced For Days Of Play Event
Sony has announced a new PlayStation 4 model--and it looks pretty slick. The "Days of Play" edition was announced during Sony's State of Play video broadcast this week.
The console features the Triangle, Circle, X, and Square logos on the side of the system, which features a steel-grey look with a matching DualShock 4 controller. It's a 1 TB system for the newer, slimmed down model. Pricing wasn't announced, but it's expected the system will cost in the area of $300 USD if it's in line with the standard PS4 base model. This is that model of system, rather than the faster PS4 Pro.
Sony also released a limited-edition Days of Play PS4 system last year that had more of an eye-catching design. The new console will presumably go on sale in June alongside the start of the Days of Play event. Days of Play is Sony's annual PlayStation celebration where the company offers lots of deals on games and hardware.
One thing that wasn't there--which Sony made clear beforehand--was the PS5. Sony recently shared the first details about the upcoming console, despite its release potentially still being more than a year or two away. It offered specs and a high-level overview of what to expect, although it didn't actually confirm the system would be called PlayStation 5.
Behold The Tragic Tale Of The Man Behind Castlevania
The Castlevania series is one of gaming’s most famous franchises and has spawned a long line of video games as well as TV shows, albums and loads of associated merchandise. However, fresh insight into the development of the original NES / Famicom trilogy – unearthed by shmuplations.com – reveals that the commercial fortune of the series resulted in one of its key figures parting company with Konami under something of a cloud.
Twitter user Sonna Yuumi worked at Konami in the ’90s and was mentored by Hitoshi Akamatsu, the director (and some would say key creative force) of the original Castlevania / Akumajō Dracula. Between 2015 and 2019, Sonna Yuumi posted a series of tweets concerning the creation of the NES trilogy, and these have been translated and compiled to create an interesting perspective on the genesis of these beloved games.
The full feature is well worth reading, but we’ll post some highlights nonetheless. For example, Akamatsu said that the whip was the primary weapon in the series because he was a fan of the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, and he defended the rather harsh difficulty by comparing the game to Super Mario Bros., where the player would die after just a single hit.
It’s also clear that Akamatsu’s grasp of game design was quite advanced for the era:
Akamatsu’s sense of game design was very deep. In Castlevania, the knife appears first so the player can get used to the subweapons. He made the stopwatch so you could get used to enemy attacks. Then the strongest items are the Cross and the Holy Water. And that was how he determined the order in which the items would appear to the player.
I once asked him about the fight with Death, and how insanely hard it was. He told me, “The game design idea there was to get players to understand how to use the cross and axe subweapons. If you can defeat with only the whip, that means you’re really good.” I can’t defeat him with the whip alone. But if you read the movements of the sickles, I understand it is possible (albeit very difficult) to beat him with just the whip. Apparently the test players were able to do it.
I think he wanted anyone to clear be able to clear his games, because he told me his standard for difficulty was that he should be able to clear it himself.
Interestingly, it is also noted that during the development of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse – considered by many to be the best NES Castlevania, if not the best game in the series full stop – Konami was very much focused on the money-spinning Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise:
Akumajo Densetsu represents the zenith of quality in both music and gameplay for the Famicom. I asked Akamatsu about why it was so good, and he said it was all done in an attempt to outdo the Ninja Turtles games. During the Famicom era at Konami, the overseas sales for Turtles was Konami’s highest seller, and because of that, the Turtles development team was prioritized above everything else. The Castlevania team (and others like it which didn’t make a lot of money) had to survive on the scraps. There was a possibility for further Castlevania sequels on the Famicom, but it got pushed out by the popularity of Ninja Turtles.
Castlevania has always been synonymous with amazing music, and it would appear this tradition began with Akamatsu:
When I told Akamatsu how great I thought the music for Castlevania was, his reply was: “That’s because both the visuals and the music were made by people who consciously wanted to do something cinematic.” And for his part, he tried to add interesting gameplay.
Amazingly, despite the quality of the Castlevania games, Akamatsu was not exactly rewarded for his efforts. The sequels apparently sold poorly (we assume Sonna Yuumi is talking about Japanese sales in this case, although global sales could be included here), and he was demoted to working in one of Konami’s game centres. Unsurprisingly, Akamatsu quit, citing his dissatisfaction with the way Konami treated its creative talent:
According to Akamatsu, Konami placed profits above all else, and developers who weren’t creating games that made lots of money were all eventually axed one-by-one. A number of them went on to do great work at Square Enix.
I asked Akamatsu what he thought about Chi no Rondo when it came out. He said, “I haven’t played it.” (laughs) At the time he was more interested in how one would go about making a game like Final Fantasy VII, rather than Castlevania, which was in the past. (laughs)
Sadly, following his departure from Konami, Akamatsu appears to have vanished from the games industry.
Video: Can A Headstrap Really Fix Zelda VR And Labo VR?
Labo VR is a great introduction to the world of Virtual Reality for Switch owners, but the much-hyped VR support it brings to Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a little disappointing – we found that it was disorienting enough to make us feel quite unwell, in fact.
Part of this is down to the fact that the Labo VR headset is never actually attached to your head, and you have to use the Joy-Con connected to the Switch itself. It’s not the most comfortable of setups, which is why Sweat Proof Gaming has released the ‘Comfort Set’ for Labo VR, which consists of some foam pads and a strap which allows you to use Labo VR hands-free.
Installation is easy – the strap itself simply fits around the Switch and doesn’t require you to modify the Labo VR headset in any way – but does it make Zelda any less nauseating? Watch the video above to find out.
Tim Cook inaugurates Apple Carnegie Library with help from DC’s mayor
By Roger Fingas Saturday, May 11, 2019, 03:40 pm PT (06:40 pm ET)
Apple drew special attention to the launch of its Carnegie Library store in D.C. on Saturday, bringing not just CEO Tim Cook but retail head Deirdre O’Brien, marketing chief Phil Schiller, and the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser.
The event was publicized on Twitter by Cook and Bowser, the latter of whom shared a video of some of the first shoppers entering the store. The pair were joined by a media pool and some of the store’s staff, who cheered and clapped to drum up excitement. Sizable crowds were in attendance.
Further photos were published on Instagram by O’Brien.
Development on Apple Carnegie Library began in 2016. Apple calls it its “most extensive historic restoration project to date,” requiring lengthy work on facades and details. Running with the theme of the building — and possibly trying to counter controversy over the relocation of the Library’s book collection — the store will be hosting a “StoryMakers Festival” series of events between May 18 and June 29, featuring 40 artists.
Apple retail VP Deirdre O’Brien posing with shoppers.
Described as a “new and exciting smartphone game”, the product will be released this fiscal year (so by March 2020) and will be based on the Pokémon franchise.
As you can see in the image captured above, more details – including its release date – will be released at a later time.
Could this be something which ties into Pokémon Sword and Shield? Will it be free-to-play, or a paid experience? So many questions! Hopefully we’ll find out soon enough.
Until then, why not let us know what you hope the game might be in the comments below?
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-11-2019, 08:25 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Tetris 99 Adds Paid DLC That Introduces Offline Modes
The popular free-to-play Nintendo Switch game Tetris 99 is expanding. A new paid DLC, Big Block, is available today, and it adds multiple offline modes and more.
The $10 Big Block DLC adds the following modes:
CPU Battle -- Lets you play offline against 98 CPU opponents.
Marathon -- Clear as many lines as you can.
The #Tetris99 Big Block DLC is available on Nintendo eShop for $9.99 and adds offline modes! Battle 98 bots in CPU Battle, and survive in Marathon mode to clear the most lines possible! Stay tuned for more on additional upcoming game modes. https://t.co/t6cp0KnJLTpic.twitter.com/VKvai3xRCe
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 10, 2019
These modes are playable offline, and that's notable because the main Tetris 99 experience is an online-only game. It also means that you no longer need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to play Tetris 99 (if you buy the $10 DLC).
Nintendo also announced more details on the next Maximum Cup online event for Tetris 99. Maximus Cup 3 begins May 17, and just like the previous ones, you get points for the matches you play regardless of how you finish. Those who get 100 points or more will receive a new theme modeled after the original Game Boy. The event runs until May 19 at 11:59 PM PT.
Nintendo teased that it will announce even more new modes for Tetris 99 at a later date.
Tetris 99 has been very successful. Just this week, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa talked about how the game has "helped maintain Nintendo Switch engagement" and also get more people to sign up for Nintendo Switch Online.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-11-2019, 08:25 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Devs reflect on the privacy risks surrounding how games subtly collect data
“I was capturing all this data and then analyzing it later, and it honestly felt like you were spying on someone.”
– Silent Hill: Shattered Memories dev Sam Barlow talks about how the game altered encounters based on behavior and an in-game personality evaluation.
Polygon has published a story exploring potential privacy concerns surrounding data collection both in and relating to video games. The full story talks with a number of developers and data experts on the kind of information collected by those in both games and adjacent industries, and points out some of the risks surrounding exactly how personal and identifiable some of that data can be in the wrong hands.
Many game developers interviewed for the story, such as some of the minds behind Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Fallout: New Vegas, go as far to say that they’d have to reexamine some of the choice-driven mechanics of their games if they were to release the same kind of thing in the modern day. Others talk about the surprising and unintentionally invasive information they learned about the people playing their games.
Obsidian’s Josh Sawyer tells Polygon that the team always has conversations about data security. Even though the data collected by games seems harmless on its own, he points out that when combined with broader profiles of a person “it can really be used in ways that go far beyond what it appears to be on its face.”
“If we were doing any telemetrics now, I would be cautious about the information from games being used and collected,” Sawyer tells Polygon. “One of the things I’d be very concerned about in a game like New Vegas is […] we allow players to make choices that are really dark and bleak.”
In these cases and the others mentioned in the full story, the data is collected with the goals of better understanding certain moments and behaviors in-game, rather than to form external profiles about the people playing games. But, as some of the experts speaking to Polygon point out, intent doesn’t mean that the data won’t be used for other purposes, especially as both games and players become more and more connected online.
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.
