Twitch teams up with Harmonix to develop a streaming karaoke game
Twitch is teaming up with Rock Band developer Harmonix to bring Twitch Sings, a streaming karaoke game, to the platform.
Announced during TwitchCon last week, CEO and co-founder of Twitch Emmett Shear described Twitch Sings as a “new category of game that’s made to be streamed,” explaining how the audience is integral to the experience.
The partnership makes a lot of sense, considering how Harmonix has experience in developing music-oriented games and karaoke is a performative activity best enjoyed with an audience.
However the announcement brings forth a few questions: How are the devs over at Harmonix monetizing Twitch Sings, if at all? Did Twitch invest in Harmonix or help fund the game?
More specifically are there any new, interesting dev features of Twitch that were specifically implemented for Twitch Sings?
Gamasutra has reached out to Twitch in hopes of answering these questions, and will update when a response is received.
The game is currently in closed beta, but Twitch is accepting signups on its website for streamers who are interested in taking part.
Video: The implementation of pro guitar mode in Rock Band 3
In 2008, music games were a big thing but the genre needed to innovate. Thus, Pro Guitar mode was introduced to Rock Band 3 with the intention of having people play on a real guitar, and actually learn to play the instrument.
In this classic GDC 2011 talk, Harmonix’s Jason Booth and Sylvain Dubrofsky break down the production and implementation of Pro Guitar mode in Rock Band 3.
The duo discuss how Pro Guitar mode was the result of three months of kicking around ideas, seven months of prototyping, and a full thirteen months of production to make it a reality.
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.
Exclusive Avatar T-Shirt Now Available to Xbox Insiders Level 2+!
Starting today, the Xbox Insider Program is proud to offer an exclusive Avatar t-shirt to all Xbox Insiders who have reached Level 2 and above as a thank you for providing feedback and support throughout the years. This shirt is brand new in its digital format, but you may have seen the design in a previous post spotlighting our summer intern. We hope you’ll enjoy wearing it along with other cool Avatar accessories.
Additionally, congratulations to the Xbox Insiders who took part in early Xbox Avatar Editor flighting efforts and received the limited edition swag for doing so! In order to keep this item exclusive to flight participants, the previously announced Xbox Insider-specific Avatar t-shirt tied to the Xbox Avatar Editor flight is no longer available now that the Xbox Avatar Editor is available to all members of the Xbox community.
Thanks again for all you do, Xbox Insiders! Instructions for how to claim your shirt are posted on the r/XboxInsiders subreddit here. If you’ve never visited the r/XboxInsiders subreddit before, it’s an Insiders-helping-Insiders community of staff, volunteers, and Xbox Insider fans; we’d encourage you to stick around for the discussion, post a question or answer one, and tell us what you’d like to see more of in the Xbox Insider Program.
A Decade Later Mario Kart Wii Has Now Sold 37.14 Million Copies Worldwide
Nintendo’s latest financial results have revealed the Switch has now shifted 22.86 million units worldwide. The system has done so well, it has already outsold the lifetime sales of the GameCube.
While revenue for the company is predominantly coming from its new hybrid device released early last year, there’s a certain Nintendo-developed Wii game from 2008 that’s still earning a pretty penny on the side. Over the period of the last quarter, Mario Kart Wii has shifted another 40,000 copies. This puts its total sales at 37.14 million.
Wii Sports still reigns supreme as the best-selling Wii game, with a total of 82.86 million sales. Back in July of this year, Nintendo game sales figures for the Switch revealed the latest Mario Kart outing – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – had shifted 10.35 million copies globally, making it the second best-selling game on the system so far.
So where are all these Mario Kart Wii sales coming from, you ask? Obviously, there are still new copies of the game out in the wild. At the end of last year, the Wii release was the 83rd best-selling game on Amazon for the holiday season. Not bad for a title that’s now a decade old.
Fixed an issue where Wish-Ender’s Broadhead perk would not activate properly, which would result in a loss of damage
Wish-Ender’s Queen’s Wrath perk effects are now more readable and consistent
Trace Rifles
Now spawn with 50 ammo in the Crucible
Now benefit from the following armor perks:
Auto Rifle Loader
Unflinching Auto Rifle Aim
Auto Rifle Targeting
Precision Weapon Targeting
Auto Rifle Dexterity
Increased Sword damage in PvE
Increased Fusion Rifle damage in PvE
Proximity Grenades now have a stat penalty to blast radius
Reduced the amount by which Full Choke narrows projectile spread
Changed the Dynamo and Distribution perks
Players will need to activate their class ability in proximity to at least one enemy to gain the benefit
Increased the energy gain by 20% to compensate slightly for the new requirement
Fixed an issue where Dynamo’s effect was not scaling based on the player’s class type; the Distribution perk had this, but it was unintentionally left out of Dynamo
General
Increased visibility through a Titan’s Banner Shield for allies
The White Nail perk should no longer occasionally activate before the player achieves the required number of precision hits
Fixed an issue where the SUROS Regime scope was opaque yellow
Fixed an issue where Polaris Lance’s The Perfect Fifth perk was not triggering
Combatants
General
Fixed an issue where Vex Cyclopes weren’t attacking players
Fixed an issue where Hive Knights and Taken Vandals were not using special abilities
Activities
Crucible
Breakthrough
Decreased attacker respawn time from 7 seconds to 5 seconds after the Breaker is deployed
Modified the game rules to prevent teams from forcing the round into a stalemate:
In the initial fight over the Breaker, the team with the most capture progress (high-water mark) will win the Breaker if time runs out without any Breaker progress present. There will still be overtime if time runs out with progress present, and the Breaker will go to the team with current progress at the end of 30 seconds, or to the high-water mark if progress reaches zero with no players on the Breaker.
While a team is hacking the other team’s Vault, progress decay accelerates gradually during Sudden Death for up to 30 seconds, after which the round will end the moment no attackers are present in the capture zone.
If the round ends in a draw twice, the match ends in a tie.
Neither team will get Glory points from this scenario.
Win Streaks are maintained.
Gambit
Sleeper Simulant now gains less ammo from Heavy ammo crates on the wall in Gambit (now 2, down from 4)
Swords now gain more ammo from Heavy ammo crates on the wall in Gambit (now 12, up from 6)
Fixed an issue where sometimes one team’s invasion portal would not open
Fixed an issue where sometimes the wrong team would be credited for defeating the Ascendant Primeval
Increased the spawn rate of the Ascendant Primeval Servitor
The Gambit ship and Sparrow are no longer guaranteed drops
Quitter protection
Fixed an issue where matchmaking would sometimes result in players being kicked from Gambit matches, thus triggering quitter penalties
Quitter penalties have been reenabled
Players will now receive two warnings before they are suspended from Gambit
Players will not be immediately suspended on the first match of the day if they quit a match the night before
Increased suspension time to 30 minutes
General
Fixed an issue where players could play the strike “The Corrupted” with a six-player fireteam
Items and Economy
Exotic Duplicate Weighting
When a player receives an Exotic, we now take into account all Exotics the player has found and weight them against Exotics they have yet to acquire. This lowers the player’s chances of receiving Exotics they already own.
Exotics that the player does not yet own are individually weighted much higher than duplicate Exotics
When receiving duplicate Exotics, the player is more likely to earn armor pieces as these have randomly rolled perks
Removed quest Exotic weapons from the Exotic engram loot pool
Worldline Zero
Ace of Spades
Wish-Ender
One Thousand Voices
Malfeasance
Lord of Wolves
The Chaperone
Enhancement Cores
Renamed Masterwork Cores to Enhancement Cores
Enhancement Cores are now awarded by Scrapper bounties and six of the Spider’s weekly bounties
Enhancement Cores will be more visible in the loot feed
General
Banshee-44 now accepts up to 25 Gunsmith Materials at a time
Removed hold time for the Spider’s material exchange interactions
Increased the stack size of Ghost Fragments from 10 to 20
Reduced shader dismantle time from 1 second to 0.25 seconds
Fixed an issue where the Secret Victories emblem was using the wrong tracker description
It now correctly displays as “Ascendant chests looted”
The requirements for the Queen’s Bounty “Purification Ritual” have been clarified and now list the target as “Abyssal Champions” instead of “Swordbearing Knights”
Raid challenge bounties now rotate in a fixed, round-robin fashion
Nightfall unique rewards will drop more consistently; the longer players go without a unique drop, the higher their chances of a unique reward on their next Nightfall completion
The chance resets once a player receives any Nightfall unique reward
PC
General
Text chat auto-fade can now be toggled on or off in the Gameplay settings menu; when turned off, text chat will never automatically fade out, even after a period of inactivity
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-31-2018, 10:39 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Here Are Some Tips For Shopping On Black Friday 2018
The biggest shopping day of the year is Black Friday, and this year's monster sales event lands on November 23, which will be here before you know it. It's the time when all the biggest retailers drop prices on all kinds of items--from video games and movies to TVs and furniture--in an effort to make a killing as the holiday shopping season begins.
Just like with any situation that can put a hefty strain on your bank account, it's best to go into Black Friday prepared. We've already covered what to expect from Black Friday 2018, but below we've compiled some of the smartest ways to save as much money as possible on the things you want, while still being financially responsible.
1. Make a List Beforehand
Once the deals start to appear, it's easy to get swept up in the hype and go on a spending spree. When that happens, though, it's all too easy to end up with a pile of items you don't actually need. If you make a list of all of the items you really want before the Black Friday deals start to appear, you'll be better prepared to stick to the list and let the inessential deals pass you by, no matter how good the prices are.
2. Check the Ads
Nearly all of the big retailers that participate in Black Friday--with the exception of Amazon--release Black Friday ads a week or two before the big event. You can find these pretty easily on their websites. Take a look at the ads and make a plan for which items you want to buy, and where. Because stock can run out fast on the best deals, prioritize your purchases and plan what you want to buy and when it will be available.
3. Make a Budget
Getting great deals is a positive thing, but overextending yourself financially is not. If money is tight, a central part of your Black Friday planning should be making a budget and pledging to stick to it. Budgeting might not be the most fun or glamorous thing to do, but will help you out enormously in the long run.
4. Use Social Media
For real-time updates on when Black Friday sales go live, your best resource is social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. You can follow GameSpot Deals on Twitter to find bargains on video games, consoles, and accessories. Another great resource is SlickDeals, a sale-tracking site that surfaces the best deals in just about every product category (it has a Twitter account as well).
5. Comparison Shop
If you see a deal you want, it's always a good idea to check the item's price at other retailers before you buy. The only potential issue on Black Friday is missing out on highly sought-after items because you spent too much time looking elsewhere. So unless the deal you're considering is a doorbuster, you don't have anything to lose by exercising due diligence and comparing prices.
6. Check Price History
Unfortunately, not all of the deals you'll see on Black Friday represent top-of-the-line savings. To make sure the item you're about to buy is a good deal, it's wise to check a price history tracker like Camelcamelcamel. There, you can see how low the price has dropped in the past and how often it fluctuates, which can help you determine if now is a good time to buy.
7. Don't Get Bummed If You See a Better Deal Later
Once Black Friday rolls around, you'll see deals popping up left and right. Doorbusters will go in and out of stock, Amazon's Lightning Deals will flicker into existence before vanishing, and surprise deals will arrive at random. If you make a purchase and then see a better deal later, don't be too upset.
For one thing, you might be able to return the item you paid a higher price for. Just make sure to look at the retailer's return policy before buying at the lower price, because you might have to pay a restocking fee or cover the cost of return shipping. At that point, the better deal might not actually save you money once all is said and done.
Those are our Black Friday shopping tips. Let us know in the comments if you have tips of your own.
Fedora 29 was just officially released. You’ll likely want to upgrade your system to the latest version of Fedora. Fedora Workstation has a graphical upgrade method. Alternatively, Fedora offers a command-line method for upgrading Fedora 28 to Fedora 29.
Upgrading Fedora 28 Workstation to Fedora 29
Soon after release time, a notification appears to tell you an upgrade is available. You can click the notification to launch the GNOME Software app. Or you can choose Software from GNOME Shell.
Choose the Updates tab in GNOME Software and you should see a window like this:
If you don’t see anything on this screen, try using the reload tool at the top left. It may take some time after release for all systems to be able to see an upgrade available.
Choose Download to fetch the upgrade packages. You can continue working until you reach a stopping point, and the download is complete. Then use GNOME Software to restart your system and apply the upgrade. Upgrading takes time, so you may want to grab a coffee and come back to the system later.
Using the command line
If you’ve upgraded from past Fedora releases, you are likely familiar with the dnf upgrade plugin. This method is the recommended and supported way to upgrade from Fedora 28 to Fedora 29. Using this plugin will make your upgrade to Fedora 29 simple and easy.
1. Update software and back up your system
Before you do anything, you will want to make sure you have the latest software for Fedora 28 before beginning the upgrade process. To update your software, use GNOME Software or enter the following command in a terminal.
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
Additionally, make sure you back up your system before proceeding. For help with taking a backup, see the backup series on the Fedora Magazine.
2. Install the DNF plugin
Next, open a terminal and type the following command to install the plugin:
sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
3. Start the update with DNF
Now that your system is up-to-date, backed up, and you have the DNF plugin installed, you can begin the upgrade by using the following command in a terminal:
sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=29
This command will begin downloading all of the upgrades for your machine locally to prepare for the upgrade. If you have issues when upgrading because of packages without updates, broken dependencies, or retired packages, add the ‐‐allowerasing flag when typing the above command. This will allow DNF to remove packages that may be blocking your system upgrade.
4. Reboot and upgrade
Once the previous command finishes downloading all of the upgrades, your system will be ready for rebooting. To boot your system into the upgrade process, type the following command in a terminal:
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot
Your system will restart after this. Many releases ago, the fedup tool would create a new option on the kernel selection / boot screen. With the dnf-plugin-system-upgrade package, your system reboots into the current kernel installed for Fedora 28; this is normal. Shortly after the kernel selection screen, your system begins the upgrade process.
Now might be a good time for a coffee break! Once it finishes, your system will restart and you’ll be able to log in to your newly upgraded Fedora 29 system.
Resolving upgrade problems
On occasion, there may be unexpected issues when you upgrade your system. If you experience any issues, please visit the DNF system upgrade wiki page for more information on troubleshooting in the event of a problem.
If you are having issues upgrading and have third-party repositories installed on your system, you may need to disable these repositories while you are upgrading. For support with repositories not provided by Fedora, please contact the providers of the repositories.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-31-2018, 10:39 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Building an ecosystem for responsible drone use and development on Azure
The next wave of computing is already taking shape around us as IoT enables businesses to sense all aspects of their business in real-time, and take informed action to running cloud workloads on those IoT devices so they don’t require “always on” connectivity to the cloud to make real-time context-aware decisions. This is the intelligent edge, and it will define the next wave of innovation, not just for business, but also how we address some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are great examples of intelligent edge devices being used today to address many of these challenges, from search and rescue missions and natural disaster recovery, to increasing the world’s food supply with precision agriculture. With the power of AI at the edge, drones can have a profound impact in transforming businesses and improving society, as well as in assisting humans in navigating high-risk areas safely and efficiently.
With these advanced capabilities also comes great responsibility including respecting the laws that govern responsible drone use in our airspace, as well as the applications of the drones to scan the environment. We believe it is important to protect data wherever it lives, from the cloud to the intelligent edge.
In addition to building the platforms for innovation, we at Microsoft believe it is crucial to also invest in companies and partnerships that will enable the responsible use of drones and associated data. Today we are making two important announcements that further our commitment to responsible use of drones as commercial IoT edge devices running on Microsoft Azure.
Drone usage is growing quickly across industries such as transportation, utilities, agriculture, public safety, emergency response, and more, to improve the efficiency and performance of existing business processes. Data generated by drones is infused with intelligence to augment the value that companies and governments deliver to customers and communities. However, concerns about regulatory compliance, privacy, and data protection still prevent organizations from adopting drone technology at scale.
AirMap works with civil aviation authorities, air navigation service providers, and local authorities to implement an airspace management system that supports and enforces secure and responsible access to low-altitude airspace for drones.
With AirMap’s airspace management platform running on Microsoft Azure, the two companies are delivering a platform that will allow state and local authorities to authorize drone flights and enforce local rules and restrictions on how and when they can be operated. Their solution also enables companies to ensure that compliance and security are a core part of their enterprise workflows that incorporate drones.
AirMap selected Microsoft Azure because it provides the critical cloud-computing infrastructure, security, and reliability needed to run these mission-critical airspace services and orchestrate drone operations around the world.
Earlier this year, Swiss Post, the postal service provider for the country of Switzerland, joined with drone manufacturer Matternet and Insel Group, Switzerland’s largest leading medical care system, to fly time-sensitive laboratory samples between Tiefanau Hospital and University Hospital Insel in Bern. This was an alternative to ground transport, where significant traffic can cause life-threatening delays. The operations are supported by Switzerland’s airspace management system for drones, powered by AirMap and Microsoft Azure, for safety and efficiency.
DJI Windows SDK for app development enters public preview
Last May at our Build developer conference, we announced a partnership with DJI, the world’s leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, to bring advanced AI and machine learning capabilities to DJI drones, helping businesses harness the power of commercial drone technology and edge cloud computing.
Today at DJI’s AirWorks conference, we are announcing the public preview of the Windows SDK, which allows applications to be written for Windows 10 PCs that control DJI drones. The SDK will also allow the Windows developer community to integrate and control third-party payloads like multispectral sensors, robotic components like custom actuators, and more, exponentially increasing the ways drones can be used in the enterprise.
With this SDK, we now have three methods to enable Azure AI services to interact with drone imagery and video in real-time:
Drone imagery can be sent directly to Azure for processing by an AI workload.
Drone imagery can be processed on Windows running Azure IoT Edge with an AI workload.
Drone imagery can be processed directly onboard drones running Azure IoT Edge with an AI workload.
We take the security of data seriously, from the cloud to edge devices such as drones. Azure IoT Edge includes an important subsystem, called the security manager, which acts as a core for protecting the IoT Edge device and all its components by abstracting the secure silicon hardware. It is the focal point for security hardening and provides IoT device manufacturers the opportunity to harden their devices based on their choice of hardware secure modules (HSM). Finally, the Azure certified for IoT program only certifies third-party Azure IoT Edge hardware that meets our strict security requirements.
We are encouraged by all the creative applications of drones we are seeing on Azure today across industry sectors, and the following are a few examples of this.
SlantRange: Is an aerial remote sensing and data analytics company servicing the information needs of the agriculture industry, with over two decades of experience in earth science, defense, and intelligence applications. The company has patented foundational technologies for aerial crop inspections and introduced innovative analytical methods that deliver valuable agronomic data within minutes of collection, anywhere in the world, using low-power edge computing devices. These technologies have propelled SlantRange’s growth from a few Nebraska corn and soybean farms just a few seasons ago to over 40 countries and a wide variety of crops today, including contracts with many of the world’s leading agricultural suppliers and producers.
Clobotics: Is a global AI company helping wind energy companies to improve its productivity by automatically inspecting, processing, and reporting wind turbine blade defects. The company has inspected over 1,000 wind turbines in the past few months around the world. Clobotics’ end-to-end solutions combine computer vision, machine learning, and data analytics software with commercial drones and sensors to help the wind energy industry automate its inspection service. Clobotics’ Wind Turbine Data Platform, along with its computer vision-based edge computing service, provides a first-of-its-kind wind turbine blade life-cycle management service. As a Microsoft WW Azure partner, Clobotics works closely with Microsoft Azure and the IoT platform to provide the most innovative and reliable services to its enterprise customers.
eSmart systems: Brings more than 20 years of global intelligence to provide software solutions to the energy industry, service providers, and smart cities. By bringing AI to the edge on Azure IoT Edge, eSmart Systems are revolutionizing grid inspections. Their Connected Drone solution has the capability to analyze 200,000 images in less than one hour, this is more than a human expert can do in a year. The result is reduced operational cost, better insights into the current status of the grid, and fewer outages.
Earlier this year we announced a $5 billion investment in IoT and the intelligent edge to continue innovation, strategic partnerships, and programs. The latest announcements with strategic partners like AirMap and DJI continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, and we look forward to seeing what our joint customers go on to build.
Card Crawl is Free on iOS and Android for Today only!
By Joe Robinson31 Oct 2018
Tinytouchtales put out some amazing games, and it’s been a pleasure covering their stuff since I’ve been in post here. Card Crawl, which released before my time, is one of the studios’ earlier hits – winning several of our awards in 2015 and generally being a great example of solitaire card games on mobile.
To celebrate Halloween this year, the developers are making the game free. That is, they’re doing a 100% discount on the cost-of-entry to own and play this game in its entirety.
[embedded content]
Depending on your platform, this will mean one of two things:
iOS Users
On the Apple Store this is a premium game, so it’s simply had its price removed for the duration of the sale. It’s free to acquire, and you’ll keep it in your library forever.
Android Users
On Google Play, Card Crawl has always been a ‘free’ game in the sense that you could try it out with a limited feature set, and then purchase an IAP to unlock the full game.
You can’t discount IAPs on Google Play, it seems, so for the moment the developers have uploaded a new build of the game that unlocks all the content automatically. You don’t need to purchase the IAP to get the full game. I imagine they’ll swap the builds back around when the promotion ends.
The promotion only lasts today (October 31st) and will end at midnight. We’ll update this story when we know which time-zone.
