Get ready for a Spooktacular October Games with Gold lineup! On Xbox One, play as an adorable villain in the throwback horror puzzle game Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut, and keep your wits about you in the creepy stealth title Maid of Sker. On the Xbox 360, and Xbox One via Backward Compatibility, warp through ancient Egypt in Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy and get your trick-or-treating fix in Costume Quest.
Xbox Live Gold members will have exclusive access to these games for a limited time as part of Games with Gold. With Xbox Live Gold, you get the most advanced multiplayer service, free games, and exclusive member discounts on games in the Microsoft Store — get Xbox Live Gold today to get in on the action or join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which includes all these fantastic benefits plus access to over 100 high-quality games with Xbox Game Pass.
Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut Paying homage to classic ‘80s trash horror, play as Skullface, an adorably demented villain, out to terrorize camp counselors and any other blocky victims he finds. New dimensions of absurd terror and over 300 fiendish puzzles await in this isometric puzzle game.
Maid of Sker Do not panic, don’t even breathe! Set in a remote hotel with a macabre and gory history, use stealth tactics to stay alive against a cult of sound-based enemies. Inspired by chilling tales in Welsh folklore, do your best to survive and brave the nightmares of the Quiet Ones.
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy Inspired by the mythology of ancient Egypt, play as Sphinx, and his reluctant hero friend, the Mummy, as they travel the world to foil the evil plans of Set. Use stealth, agility, and special powers to find the stolen magical crowns of Egypt and save the world.
Costume Quest Collect super-powered magical costumes and level up your hero in the monster-filled neighborhoods of Auburn Pines. Complete numerous quests, build up your party, and take down evil in the Halloween tale that will capture the imagination of kids and the kids-at-heart.
Read more about our Games with Gold program here and stay tuned to Xbox Wire for all the latest news on Xbox. Like we said before, if you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, you have all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, plus over 100 high-quality console and PC games that you want to play. New games are added all the time, so you’re never without something new to try when you’re looking to find your next favorite game. If you’re new, or if you’re an existing Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for Console member, join or upgrade today for just $1.
Tilting Point acquires TerraGenesis from Edgeworks Entertainment
Free-to-play publisher Tilting Point has acquired terraforming simulator TerraGenesis from Edgeworks Entertainment for an undisclosed fee.
The deal will see Tilting Point take over TerraGenesis’ mobile and PC development with “creative counsel” from Edgeworks, which will remain brand licensor moving forward.
Tilting Point has been helping to market and distribute TerraGenesis since 2017, and has seen the title increase its average gross revenue to $350,000 per month while surpassing 21 million downloads.
Moving forward, Tilting Point president Samir Agili indicated the company wouldn’t be rocking the boat, but rather building on the foundations that are already in place.
“TerraGenesis is a fantastic case study that not only showcases the value and success of collaboration, but also the impact of thinking outside the box when creating a completely niche and unique title,” commented Agili in a press release.
“This acquisition is an organic next step in our progressive publishing relationship with Edgeworks. With TerraGenesis, our goal is to build on what already makes the game a hit within its community, all while growing its revenue and fan base using our proprietary tools and expert teams.”
Blog: Tips and advice for pitching your game to a publisher
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Gamasutra: Stas Ignatov’s Blog – Pitching Your Game To A Publisher – Tips and Advice
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Are you developing a game and have recently thought of partnering with a publishing company? Or maybe you’re planning ahead, before starting to work on your first project?
In either case, you’ve come to the right place. This guide’s goal is to provide you with all the information required to present your game to a publisher — and do a great job of it!
Part I —The (In)famous Pitch Deck
Let’s start with the basics. The first steps between a game developer and a publisher usually involve a Game Pitch (also called a Pitch Deck) — a short presentation of the game’s features, its strongest selling points, and your vision of its development.
Building a solid pitch deck can be a challenge even for veteran developers. This is why, in the next few paragraphs, we’re going to share our best tips on the matter. Use these suggestions to create a great pitch deck of your own:
Step 1: Give Your Game A Proper Introduction
This is, perhaps, one of the most important parts: it sets the baseline of expectations for any additional information that comes after. A good introduction should cover these points:
Elevator pitch — To start off strong, try to combine all of the game’s coolest parts in one short, but sweet sentence. Maybe, your game is “Enter The Gungeon meets farming”, or “Doom as a rhythm game”. Whatever it is, make it fun and appealing! This gives an immediate understanding of what kind of product a publisher is dealing with, and whether it suits their lineup.
Key information about the game and its features — Everyone needs to be on the same page, knowing exactly what the game is about.
Project’s most important features and innovations — Which features make your game stand out? Which features are you the most excited about? If you can, showcase these features in your pitch with pictures or video!
Remember: there’s no second chance to make a first impression — so make sure that your intro perfectly encapsulates everything that’s unique and exciting about the game!
Avoid using “big words” with little to no details, i.e.: “Holistic gameplay experience”, “Unique, immersive, & fully explorable” etc. Be specific — and explain how exactly you are going to achieve what you’re talking about.
Step 2: Add Some General Information
Now that the basics are out of the way, it’s time to delve a bit deeper into what your project will be about. Your pitch deck should include a few slides that give the publisher a general idea of the game, its scope, and its unique features.
We’ll explore some of these further down the guide but, for now, here’s a list of vital data you need to add to your pitch. As they are the most important information about your game, every pitch deck should include:
Game’s Title
Genre
Core List Of Features
Visual Style
Required Budget (if applicable)
Team Info
Step 3: Showcasing Your Game
During the pitch you will have to, in one way or another, show the publisher your game. Of course, there’s a lot of intricacies involved with that — with most of them depending on how much of the game you can actually show.
With that being said, let’s get through the key ideas in how to best showcase your game:
Start with your strongest point — Begin by showing something that will grip the audience. There’s something that makes your game shine, even in its unfinished state: its visual style, a gameplay feature, or even the narrative component — whatever it is, show it first!
Best Practices — Of course, the best way to show off your project would be letting the publishers play the currently available version of the game — with a list of available features and development time spent as a cherry on top. And if you don’t think the game’s ready to be played yet — just record a gameplay session at home!
Fake it till you make it — As mentioned in the previous point, having a prototype is key. And if you don’t have one available — why not try to make one? Even a “proof of concept” video, showcasing the creator’s intent, will help everyone understand your idea better.
Visualize your gameplay, if possible — Enhancing your gameplay feature explanations with visual aid will help others understand what your game is all about — and what exactly makes it fun to play.
Give others a feel for the game’s final visual style. — Whether through concept art, in-game models or any other assets, it’s really important to relay your plans for the game’s final look.
Step 4: Introducing Your Team
Games are often seen as a sterile product of modern technology, born from a void that most consumers have no clues about. But, as a developer, you know too well that’s not the case.
There’s a lot of work behind even the smallest of games.Now that you’ve shown your title, it’s time to introduce the people who’ll help bring it to life!
Present the team in its entirety — and if you’re thinking about bringing more people on board would help, don’t forget to mention it in the pitch!
Showcase the team’s merits… — Whether you’re a lifelong fan of the genre, or an experienced developer full of insights and ideas — show the publisher all the reasons why you are the perfect team for this particular game!
…And their technical capabilities — Games nowadays are getting more and more technically complex, so outlining your team’s technical skills is just as important!
Step 5: Crunching The Numbers
As publishers will likely take an active role in the development of your game, they’ll need to know more about its current state and the resources you’ll need to complete the project.
Providing an estimate of the game’s budget and development time will greatly help both parties understand the situation. Not only that, the effort of researching the necessary info goes a long way towards showing your dedication to the project.
This information needs to be present in your document:
Game Budget — This part is essential, as it greatly helps investors (and you!) assess the scale of the project, as well as the financial risks involved.
Development Timeline — This document should cover the particulars of your plan to develop the game, from start to finish — the more detailed, the better! In the document, don’t forget to identify the exact point your team is currently at — that will make the timeline much clearer.
Development Backlog — If you’ve already started development, tell the publisher all about it! What did you do, how did you do it, and how long did it take — once again, don’t shy away from details!
Step 6: Marketing Ideas
While working on the game, you’ve probably had some ideas about the people who’d enjoy playing it. Or maybe you’ve given some thought to how to properly showcase your game’s strong sides, to engage the people who’d enjoy it. If you did — then add these to your pitch:
Target Audience — Who are the people that will be interested in your product? What unites them? Which games are they playing right now? What other media do they enjoy?
The Main Message — Which of the game’s features will be of most interest to its intended audience? What would be the best way to bring attention to these features?
Your Ideas On Marketing — If you have any particular ideas on how the game should be promoted, this would be a perfect spot to communicate that.
Understanding the game’s intended audience, as well as the desired perception of your game by this audience, is key to a successful game launch.
Step 7: Assessing The Risks
There’s no denying that developing a game is a risky endeavor. From production to distribution and reception, there’s a number of things that could go wrong. These are risks that the publisher will want to know before they decide to collaborate on your game.
In addition, accurately describing the possible risk factors of the game’s development puts your foresight and planning skills on display — which is crucial in gaining publisher’s trust.
As you’re building your pitch deck, you should always:
Make an accurate list — Specify the risks, both external and internal, that could impede game development.
Fight or adapt — After you’ve gathered the risks, you’ll need to communicate how exactly you’ll proceed with making the game knowing them. Will you tackle those risks head-on? Or adapt your plans accordingly?
In this case, it’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, so be sure to include all of the risks that come to mind.
Step 8: Asking For The Right Kind of Help
Expressing your exact desires from a publisher relationship is just as important as describing the game itself. Before approaching the publisher, you need to know exactly what you require from the publisher to finish your game — and to make it successful.
This part of your pitch deck may include, but isn’t limited to:
Financial Investment
Marketing and Advertising
Quality Assurance Testing
Console Porting
Game Localization
Think of what parts of development and marketing you need most help with — and include that in your pitch. That way, both you and the publisher will know exactly what you’re looking for from the partnership.
Other Tips & Advice
Keep things vague, to a degree — While showing the game to the publisher, you may want to keep the detailed descriptions to a minimum. Try your best to communicate your expectations from the game in broad terms. For example, Player Stories (short stories about the situation will find him/herself in)are a great way of relating the game’s mechanics.
Don’t spend too much or too little time — setting up a Pitch Deck is an arduous, but still a very important process. Take your time, and make sure your document is polished and complete. Don’t dwell on it too much, though — otherwise you’ll start stressing over every little detail.
Value the publisher’s time — keep in mind that your pitch should be around 15 pages long. If you’ve got any additional information that you want to share in detail (for example, the game’s story or a more nuanced explanation of a game mechanic) — you can do so in a separate document, and send it along with the pitch.
Know the publisher’s forte — different publishing labels specialize in different things, and you should keep this in mind when contacting them. You wouldn’t want to pitch a match-3 mobile game to Devolver Digital, or an indie-metroidvania to Zynga — it’s just not what they do.
Maintain a realistic outlook — While creating your pitch, it’s important to keep your head cool, and think about your game realistically. Being too much of an optimist can be a negative thing — so when you, for example, say your game will sell a million copies in its first month, think of whether there’s something in your pitch that backs that claim.
Avoid unnecessary or potentially damaging information — Whether it’s unfinished assets, detailed descriptions of basic features, or other parts you don’t feel confident about — it’s best to leave them out of the presentation. Keeping the pitch short and sweet is the key to success!
To Sum Up…
While creating your pitch deck, keep these key points in mind:
Outline all the required information about the game, showing as much in-game footage as possible.
Describe your team’s technical capabilities, and let everyone know why you’re the perfect people to make this game.
Showcase your planning skills — include a development timeline from beginning to end, and a proposed release date for your game.
Don’t forget to include your desires from a publisher — budget, marketing, QA, localization etc.
And once again — keep things brief, yet intriguing! Publishers tend to respond to 15 pages pitches much more positively — compared to pitches that are 30 pages long or more.
Part II — Presenting Your Pitch
Now that you’ve prepared your Pitch Deck, it’s time to think on how to present it in the best way possible. After all, a Pitch Deck is only as good as the pitch itself!
Here are some do’s and don’ts to consider when pitching your game:
Don’t dwell on the details — Your main goal with pitching is to give a concise, yet complete presentation of the project. Try not to bloat it with information that doesn’t directly benefit your cause.
Present yourself, and your team, in the best light possible — After all, if things go well, you’ll be working with the people you’re pitching to. And you’ll be working with them for at least a few months (or maybe years!) — so making a good first impression certainly helps!
Show Confidence — This is your game first and foremost. Try to refrain from asking the publisher “what do they think” one too many times, or show yourself too open to any changes to the game.
Avoid direct comparison — While this might work well to describe some of the features your game might include, don’t sell your game short by directly comparing it to another title in general. No one wants “another Dark Souls”, or “a new Counter Strike” — these games already exist!
Get the techready — If showcasing live, putting your professionalism on display will increase your chances of success. Don’t pitch your game on a smartphone or a tablet device. Bring the devices you need to make your assets truly shine — a laptop, game controllers, headphones, whatever works best!
Be prepared — After the pitch, the publisher will probably have some questions for you, to better understand your case. You might find some of those questions to be uncomfortable — but try to keep your head high. To better prepare yourself, think of what these questions might be beforehand — and come up with a satisfying answer.
Useful Links
No guide would be complete without a few pointers to external resources. Luckily, we got you covered! Below is a list of free online resources related to this topic — these will help you prepare for pitching, as well as creating the Pitch Deck itself.
Pitch Decks — GameDocs.org hosts an archive of Game Design Documents and Pitch Decks from such well-known titles as Metal Gear Solid 2, Diablo, BioShock and Planescape: Torment.
Development Schedule — ProductPlan’s roadmap creation tool will be of high value for those with no prior experience in game development schedule planning, and the official guide will provide additional help.
A Few Closing Remarks
Even though you are now prepared to pitch your game project — the whole process might still seem overwhelming, at least a bit.
So keep in mind — the hardest part is already behind you. You already have a concept for a great game — a game that you and your team believe in. All that’s left is to make someone else believe in it too.
Best of luck!
Author: Andrey Sazhin, producer at META Publishing
In the age of COVID, with so many people working from home or in out of the ordinary scenarios, we may not necessarily have a ton of control over our environment. This means noise cancellation is perhaps more important than it has ever been. We are not immune to the effects and the audio quality of GFS videos have certainly suffered in the last few months. Enter RTX Voice.
If you are unaware, RTX Voice is a free plugin from NVIDIA that uses machine learning to filter out background noise. RTX Voice is described as:
NVIDIA RTX Voice is a new plugin that leverages NVIDIA RTX GPUs and their AI capabilities to remove distracting background noise from your broadcasts, voice chats, and remote video conferencing meetings. This allows users to “go live” or join a meeting without having to worry about unwanted sounds like loud keyboard typing or other ambient noise in noisy environments. RTX Voice also suppresses background noise from players in loud environments, making incoming audio easier to understand.
RTX Voice requires an RTX 2060 or higher and works with the vast majority of video capture applications including OBS Studio and Camtasia. The also offer RTX Voice support in their more comprehensive, but also free, Broadcast App.
We decided to put RTX Voice to the test in a simulated real world environment, using a Shure MV51 microphone and a Logitech Pro X headset (affiliate links). The tests were done with RTX Off and On with each device, as well as with background noise including typing and television. You can see (and hear!) the results in the video below (or watch on Odysee).
Apple working on how to securely present electronic ID wirelessly
Apple wants the iPhone to replace drivers’ licenses and any other form of ID, so it is working on technology to keep details secure when authenticating the holder’s identity wirelessly.
Even Apple has said that the end of paper ID won’t happen quickly, but there’s no question that it’s coming. Before we can get used to holding our Apple Watch over an airport security desk’s reader terminal, though, we have to know it’s safe.
If you’ve even used contactless Apple Pay once, you know that it is supremely convenient. The existing ability to run through, say, London’s Underground as you buy a ticket with just a flick of your wrist, is excellent.
When it’s your money that’s at stake, these transactions have to be secure. When it’s your identity, that security has to be unbeatable. A newly-revealed Apple patent application named “Controlled Identity Credentials Release” is solely concerned with exactly this.
“Physical identity credentials, such as driver’s licenses, passports, etc., may be migrating to digital form, such as digital identity credentials stored on electronic devices,” says Apple. “As the credentials themselves change, so too will the manner in which a user provides his identity credential to a third party, such as a government official, a commercial entity, and the like.”
“For example, the user may wirelessly transmit their digital identity credential from their device to a wireless terminal device of a third party,” continues the patent application. So, for instance, it concerns how a law enforcement device might talk to your iPhone to properly request ID.
Detail from the patent showing a workflow for verifying ID
It’s all about “controlled methods of releasing, or providing, the user’s digital identity credential” when we want to do that. Whether it’s to a TSA officer because we want to board a plane, or it’s to verify our age when we apply for a credit card, the delivery of the data must be secure.
Apple suggests multiple ways of presenting our ID on request, including only showing it on our screen. “[For example,] the user’s identity credential is displayed on the user’s device while the user’s device remains in the locked state,” suggests Apple. “In this manner, the user can provide their device to a third party (e.g., a TSA personnel and/or security checkpoint personnel), without comprising the security/privacy of the user’s data stored on the device.”
That may do if you’re pulled over by a traffic cop, but when you’re entering an airport, for instance, you know that more is needed. “Alternatively or in addition to displaying the identity credential, the identity credential may be wireless transmitted to a terminal device of the governmental authority, such as via NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Aware etc,” continues Apple.
This all presumes that we are able to present our ID. There are situations, such as when we’re incapacitated, when we need to be identified yet we cannot personally do anything about that. In this case, Apple proposes that under the right circumstances, our devices could “automatically transmit the user’s identity credential.”
Apple gives the example of a first responder, “such as police officer, firefighter, etc,” who could legitimately possess a device that would automatically request ID like this. “[Upon] verifying that the first responder is authorized to receive the identity credential, [the device] may automatically transmit the user’s identity credential to the device of the first responder.”
The patent application goes into detail about the use of secure enclaves, and how such identity request verification could be handled, it is also concerned with what information does or does not need to be provided.
[“For instance,] the identity credential may be presented with only a portion of the information on the identity credential visible (such as the user’s name and birth date for proof of age),” says Apple, “and/or by providing a processed response to a request for information (e.g., ‘yes’ or ‘no’) based on information contained in the user’s identity credential.”
That’s similar to the thinking behind how our biometric data is held in a secure enclave on our iPhones. An app or service may need to verify who we are, say before we purchase something, but really its need is very limited and very specific. We have to be who we say we are, so an app or service can ask the secure enclave and be told that yes, we are, or no, we are not.
Detail from the patent showing one suggested position for an iPhone ID button
The app or service making the request doesn’t need, or get, our names or any other portion of our ID information. Yet it can securely continue to process the purchase, for instance, because we have been verified.
This new patent application is credited to seven inventors. That includes Rupamay Saha, and Christopher Sharp, both of whom are previously named on a related application about providing verified user ID.
“Dog-Sledding Survival Game” The Red Lantern Launches On Switch This Month
If you’re a fan of video games and dogs, then wow do we have the product for you.
Timberline Studio has revealed that its dog-sledding narrative survival game, The Red Lantern, will be sliding onto Switch on 22nd October. It’s a resource management game where you and your team of five sled dogs must survive the wilderness and find your way home, all set in the glorious outskirts of Alaska.
You play as The Musher, voiced by Ashly Burch (of Horizon: Zero Dawn and Life is Strange fame), as she sets out to start her new dog sledding life, fending off bears, looking after your pups, and avoiding squirrels, apparently. Here’s a feature list:
– Survive the Alaskan wilderness in this dog sledding, story-driven, rogue-lite game – Choose how you want to interact with the world, do you tackle it head on hunting everything that moves, or do you take a more cautious approach? – Discover the hundreds of unique encounters as you and your dogs explore the world and try to find your way home. – Adopt your 4 favorite pups to complete your dog sledding team.
Lindsey Rostal, Co-Founder and CEO of Timberline Studio, says, “The Red Lantern is our debut title, and we’re thrilled to finally get to share it with everyone. We’ve been spending quite a lot of time with our 9 pups and we hope people fall in love with them as much as we have.
“We set out to make a narrative game that wasn’t about which ending you got, but about which journey. How will you react to what’s happening around you? What dogs will you adopt? As you progress and gain more resources and items, what stories do you unlock? The Red Lantern is about pursuing the goals you set for yourself, even if they are a little bit wild. Whatever your journey is, we hope you persevere and find your way home.”
The game will be available for $24.99 USD when it launches on the Switch eShop later this month. Let us know if you’ll be giving it a go with a comment below.
Here Are The Switch eShop’s Best-Selling Games Of September 2020 (Japan)
Nintendo has released an updated list of its best-selling titles in Japan, revealing which Switch games are currently doing the business on the Japanese eShop.
Below, you’ll find a list of the 20 best-selling games on the Japanese eShop for September 2020. Only paid downloads are included, and any games that were on sale during the period are appropriately labelled (thanks, Perfectly Nintendo). Secondary numbers show last month’s chart placement:
Xbox Boss Says Game Pass Streaming Planned For PC And Consoles, Too
Xbox Game Pass games can now be streamed through mobile devices thanks to xCloud, making it much easier than ever before to play The Master Chief Collection on the toilet. But this is just the start of Microsoft's plans for streaming, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has indicated in a tweet that streaming will make its way to Game Pass on Xbox and PC, too.
Replying to a tweet asking directly whether Game Pass on console and PC would allow for streaming at some point--allowing users to demo a game before committing to a download--Spencer responded saying that they have a plan in the works for this. "It's in the long list of cool things the xCloud team is working on, just a bit further down the list," he said.
Yes, we want to do this. It's in the long list of cool things the xCloud team is working on, just a bit further down the list. But we want console and PC players to be able to browse as easily as mobile players, it's a good gamepass feature.
This means that the feature could be a while off yet, but it's at least being planned, and we could eventually see Game Pass streaming on these systems.
The 213rd GalaQuiz will be LIVE soon, win up to $50 in GalaCredit!
[www.indiegala.com] The GalaQuiz will take place in less than 10 minutes from this announcement Today's GalaQuiz[www.indiegala.com] hints are up. The theme will be Cartoon Girlfriends Redux.
International Day of the Girl was created to fight for gender equality around the world, and raise awareness of the issues faced by girls everywhere. Women across the globe are continually striving for protection from discrimination on the streets, in the workplace, and within the gaming industry. The Game of the Girl online panel featured women who work in gaming telling their stories and discussing their experiences in the workplace.
Game of the Girl was hosted by comedian and games journalist, Ellie Gibson, Anita Wong from Indigo Pearl, Izzy Jagan from Square Enix, Jade King from Trusted Reviews, and Imogen Mellor from GamingBible. They discussed their treatment in the workplace, celebrated women in gaming, and gave some very useful tips for those of you looking to get into the industry.
A Game of the Girl 2020 Steam sale commenced today and includes discounted titles celebrating strong female protagonists. A percentage of the proceeds will go towards War Child UK, so be sure to check Steam for discounts of up to 80% on titles such as Gone Home, Heaven’s Vault, and Bury Me, My Love.
The Game of the Girl stream supported the War Child UK charity. War Child UK helps children in territories of war and takes action for girls being mistreated. They use many forms of media, including video games, to help girls learn to read and write after being in dangerous situations.
Aside from helping a fantastic cause, the presenters gave many tips for those of you looking to get into the game industry. The advice provided ranged from keeping up to date with video games by watching YouTube let’s play videos and having the confidence to apply for every job or internship you see! None of the members of the panel had a video game relevant university degree, but find having a degree is a valuable commodity to your portfolio.
Women have come a long way in the industry, and their representation in games has come leaps and bounds. From being shown as nothing more than love interests, to now taking the lead role in games and truly showing their worth. It’s amazing to see women supporting other women, “I’ll get the doorstop!” Izzy Jagan commented when asked how she has been holding the door open for other women during her time in the industry.
If you want to learn more, be sure to check out #RaiseTheGame. Raise the Game are fighting you equality within the video game industry, and have lots of tips to let you know how you can get involved.
