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The world is complicated.

I like attempting to decipher the truth from the noise.

I also happen to be a game designer/developer and enjoy finding and analysing relevant stats. Valve recently posted some graphs showing that more games than ever are making at least $10,000 in the first 30 days of Launch on Steam. Great news for independent digital creatives. They had various ways of analysing the stats and you can read more in their original post. Here’s a nice graph they made, taken from the appendix of that article.

I thought it might also be useful to add some context to those figures as the number of games being released on Steam has also been increasing in recent years.

Below is a table showing the percentage of new releases that hit the above metric of making at least $10k in the first 30 days of launch. Please keep in mind this is an indication of trends rather than the precise results for the following reasons:

• I’m estimating the number of games that hit $10k based on squinting at the above bar chart!

• The bar chart above excludes games that are free to download.

• I’m cross referencing those numbers with Steam Spy’s numbers for total releases in each year, which does not exclude games that are free to download. Because of this we would expect the percent of releases reaching this metric to be higher than in the table below, especially in recent years as more freemium games get released. However, freemium games are still the minority of releases on Steam so let’s not worry too much about this for now.

Here’s a bar chart of the same table data so it’s easier to visualise.

We can clearly see that, as you might expect, as more games become available on Steam, a smaller percentage of them are able to achieve revenue of at least $10,000 in the first 30 days of launch.

Should Indies Get Out The Pitch Forks and Tweet Valve With Great Vengeance and Furious Anger?

No.

In my opinion, Valve have taken on a very difficult task, and one that I respect. As I see it they are trying to battle natural macro behavior. In a previous article I briefly touched on the Pareto principle. It’s a strange phenomena that tends to crop up in many avenues of society. Essentially, perhaps because of our innate behaviours of forming hierarchies, worshiping the same idols and copying what those around us do, most of us tend to talk about the same things, play the same games, listen to the same music and [insert activity] as those in our perceived community. This means you get a small number of “big winners” and a large number of “small winners” if winning means achieving popularity in any given domain. In other words, it’s not “Steam’s Fault” if the most popular games massivly oveshadow the other games.

You can read an article by Stardock, creators of Sins of a Solar Empire, to hear some more interesting thoughts on the Pareto Principle, the changing landscape of Steam and their response to it as a creative business.

So how are Valve combatting the effect? They are introducing various new discovery tools and algorithms that, in theory, will only display games that an individual user is likely to genuinely enjoy. So even if game X is the current top selling game of the week, a user who shows no interest in that “style” of game should not see it on their Steam front page. Instead they’ll see games that interest them. This is fairly new ground that Valve have yet to perfect. But they are definitely trying and I commend that. As an anecdotal aside I think Spotify do a good job of recommending tracks and artists based on user preference and Youtube do a moderately good job of recommending content based on user preference.

I should point out my bias though. Myself and two comrades released a niche game on Steam which we thought might get some downloads at release and then drop to 0 soon after launch. However, we have been pleasantly surprised to see that it has consistently been shown to Steam users every month and consistently gets bought and downloaded. Due to this modest success, we’ve been able to attract some publishers who want to push it out onto more platforms. So my personal perspective is that I’m grateful to have the opportunity to follow my creative passions (I like designing games that try and make people feel connected to each other) *and* have a platform that helps us to monetise our creations every month through their automated systems.

False Assumptions?

I think some of us have an assumption that “a level playing field” is possible. By that I mean a world without “top 10” charts and where the disparity between the rich poor does not continue to spiral. However, I now question that assumption. It might be more likely that the sum of human activity looks very much like a scaled up version of our basic tribal instincts where we want to belong to a group and feel the same as those around us. The more interconnected and fast moving our societies and social/financial networks are, the more quickly the big winners surface and become dominant in their field because they can amass more followers at a rapid rate of acceleration.

Practical Strategies

So what does this all mean on a practical level if you are  a small studio trying to sustain yourselves with the content you create? There could be various strategies. Here are a few different approaches:

Don’t try and compete in saturated markets/platforms. Find emerging markets/platforms and enjoy the relative fame there while you can before the larger organisations move in and dominate. We saw this happen with Apple’s App Store and in the PC space there have been several new platforms springing up in recent years that you could investigate. There are always new opportunities to take advantage of.

Figure out how you can beat the larger organisations at their own game. This is obviously very challenging and perhaps foolhardy. However, if you have a good understanding of what customers really need/want and you have an efficient design/production approach you might discover what you *don’t* need to build into your products. This will allow you to prioritise what your audience wants and build it with a smaller team, ignoring costly features that traditional studios still assume are necessary.

Don’t try and be the star. Instead of wanting the limelight for yourself and rolling the dice to try and make that happen, build tools that allow others to follow their dreams.

Rather than attempting to create your own network or following, make use of an existing one. Find an emerging network/service/product and build your content on top of it to give that audience more ways to enjoy the core product.

Work with larger partners. An established publisher or investor would not expect all their projects to make a profit. If they’ve calculated their risk portfolio well, the hits they have will far outweigh the cost of the losses. On the flipside, if you are relying on your single project to be a hit, you’re playing a risky game.

Ignore anything to do with shifting business landscapes. Follow your creative instincts, place your bet and go all-in. You might get lucky, someone has to! (Don’t actually do this unless you are young and have a wealthy family who can/will support you if you go broke!)

Ok that’s it from me for now, I don’t often use Twitter but I do have an account so you can message me @HoneyTribeStu (although it might take me a while to respond)

Cheers,

Shaz Yousaf

Career technical artist Jens Hauch has passed away at the age of 46.

Coworkers at 343 Industries shared news of his passing on social media this week, alongside a link to a fundraiser set up by friends and teammates to help cover expenses and support his family.

“Jens was a much-loved member of our 343 Industries family, and we will deeply miss his warm and generous spirit…and his radiant smile,” shares 343 Industries’ Robert Semsey on the Gofundme page. The fundraiser and information on how to contribute can be found here.

Hauch spent over 20 years working as an environmental and technical artist across the game industry, including over a decade at Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet in lead and principle technical artist positions and his most recent work as a technical art lead for the Halo Infinite team at 343 Industries.

We had some sad news for 343i this last week. The unexpected loss of Jens Hauch our environment art tech lead. Kind, generous and passionate. If you are moved to support his family please do so here. Jens will be missed. Jens Memorial Fund https://t.co/iU2eEZZlhR

— jerry hook (@hookscourt) April 10, 2020

As mentioned earlier this week Unigine are launching a community version of their Unigine game engine, traditionally used in engineering and simulation industries.  The new Community version has much more indie friendly licensing terms, including free usage up to $100K USD annual income.

In addition to the new Community version, Unigine 2.11 was just released with the following new features:

• Community Edition, free for non-commercial/academic projects and enthusiasts.
• Optimized performance: async node update, optimized bounds calculation.
• Better input handling and window management via SDL.
• Improved particles shading.
• C# Component System updates: renaming, simple inheritances, parameter conditions.
• Significantly improved multi-channel rendering, revamped Syncker system.
• Usability improvements and performance optimizations of UnigineEditor.
• Fox Hole archviz demo with both desktop and VR modes.

You can learn more about the 2.11 features on the Unigine forums available here or by watching the Unigine launch trailer available here.  You can sign up for Unigine Community right here.

As always we do a deeper dive on Unigine 2.11 and Unigine Community in the video below.

GameDev News Engine

Do you like games? Well, you’ve come to the right place. We love games at Pocket Tactics. Mobile games in particular. But enough about us, we want to learn more about you and your gaming habits, so we’ve put together a super short survey that you can fill out to so we can learn all about the games you like to play, and how you like to play them.

The survey is brought to you by our parent company, Network N, who is curious about what our readership is interested in from a gaming and hardware perspective. Network N also runs The Loadout and PCGamesN, alongside a bunch of other sites, so expect questions that don’t necessarily relate to mobile.

It shouldn’t take too long to complete; about 5 – 10 minutes or so, and you’ll get a chance to win a £100 Amazon gift card. As such, it’s worth filling in even if you’re not a huge gamer. We’re interested in entertainment consumption in general, so pop in and tell us about exactly how much you like The Witcher on Netflix.

To make the process incredibly smooth for you, we’ve put the survey directly in this post so you don’t even have to leave the page to fill it in.

Create your own user feedback survey

If you have filled in the survey, we’d like to thank you for your time. While we’ve got you, you should definitely check out some of our great content, like our best mobile games 2020 list.

Wireless CarPlay is still scarce, but there is a way for existing CarPlay users to break free of wires inexpensively, and we’ve been testing it for months now.

Using CarPlay wireless

Editor’s note: We stumbled across this dongle some time ago. In the three months since we originally published this piece, we’ve had questions about it, and we’ve had more time to test it in more conditions.

Wired CarPlay is near-ubiquitous among newer vehicles, with only a few recently making the jump to wireless. Ford announced several vehicles will go wireless with a new Sync 4 update and Uconnect 5 from FCA will also bring wireless CarPlay to a massive number of vehicles.

Unfortunately, that leaves everyone else out in the cold currently relying on their existing wired CarPlay setups. Typically, the only real cost-effective ways to get wireless CarPlay is to wait until you step up to a new vehicle or pony up some big cash for an aftermarket head unit, such as the Pioneer AVH-W4400NEX receiver we tested. But, an after-market solution can sometimes cause problems with integrated electronics, like backup cameras or remote starter systems.

[embedded content]

Fortunately, we’ve recently stumbled upon a middle ground. There is a way to achieve wireless CarPlay without a replacement receiver and without a new vehicle.

Hack your way to wireless CarPlay

We managed to do this with an external USB box that essentially “tricks” your vehicle into thinking your iPhone is plugged in. There are several versions of this device floating around online though the one we picked up is called CarPlay2Air.

This device connects to your car’s USB port that is used for CarPlay. The vehicle then registers this as a CarPlay device. Your iPhone sees this new external receiver as a CarPlay device and will connect to it wirelessly.

What this amounts to in the end, at least today, is seamless, wireless CarPlay.

The CarPlay interface as it connects to your iPhone

With the adapter installed, wireless CarPlay works like any other official solution. You get in the vehicle, as soon as it boots up, your phone will automatically connect to your infotainment system.

A new loading screen appears for a few moments as your phone connects. This is the one difference between this solution and an official solution.

Wireless CarPlay brings several benefits. Your iPhone’s battery life gets displayed on your infotainment screen which leaves you free to keep the phone in your pocket or purse. Fiddly wires become a thing of the past.

Best of all, you can finally use a wireless charger. We hit the road often and have destroyed Lightning cables because a small amount of water has gotten on the pins. A bad Lightning cable means no CarPlay.

Quarrles and quibbles

Not everything is perfect with these wireless CarPlay adapters.

Occasionally when we would use remote start, upon entering the vehicle CarPlay would not automatically connect per usual. This requires us to unplug and re-plug the CarPlay adapter to get it working again. That said, we have also had similar issues with manufacturer installed and third-party wireless CarPlay units so it is hard to peg who’s at fault conclusively, in this regard.

There have also been many reports as of late of issues with wireless CarPlay on recent versions of iOS. Again, it makes it hard to particularly different to discern if iOS, the receiver, or the CarPlay adapter are the ones causing this occasional hiccups.

Only a hack

The CarPlay2Air CPlay2Air adapter

The bigger issue at play is that these aren’t much more than a hack and are in no way supported by Apple. Going forward, there is no guarantee that a new version of iOS doesn’t deploy that completely kills how they work. The same goes for many customer-driven projects such as HomeBridge for connecting non-certified accessories to HomeKit.

It is a gamble, but some users —like me —see the benefit of that risk for a feature that isn’t being delivered by auto manufacturers.

All we know is that these wireless CarPlay adapters —at least the one we tried —work for now. Here’s hoping they stay that way.

Update

AppleInsider has further reached out to the CarPlay2Air developer for additional clarification on how the adapter works.

According to them, the adapter isn’t so much a “hack” as it is a clever piece of engineering. The dongle is mimicking a legitimate CarPlay receiver so the only way that this would be disabled is if other all CarPlay receivers were also broken.

While we can’t entirely confirm on our own how the intricacies work of the adapter, this does give us more relief that this piece of hardware won’t be deemed useless by a future iOS update.

The other third-party adapters we originally linked to below were more in the vein of a hack and required you to install an app on whichever compatible head unit you have installed. CarPlay2Air does not need to do so and plugs into almost any existing wired CarPlay system.

Where to buy

If you’d like to try one out for yourself, you can pick up the CarPlay2Air adapter from its site for $159.

Since the 2018 release of SEGA AGES Sonic the Hedgehog, we’ve seen a slow and steady flow of classic SEGA games arrive on Switch eShop courtesy of developer and retro port specialists M2. This is the same company responsible for the excellent SEGA 3D Classics line for 3DS.

While not as plentiful or frequent as Hamster’s Arcade Archives or ACA Neo Geo catalogues, M2 lavishes extra care and attention on every Sega Ages release which often goes above and beyond what you might expect. You won’t find any dusty ROMs thrown on the eShop here – every single release has a smattering of mod cons and extras, often bespoke to each individual title.

New releases will be added to this list as they drop. The games are listed in alphabetical order, although you can view them in our database sorted by Release Date or User Rating. Beneath the full Sega Ages Switch list you’ll find our picks of the very best.

SEGA AGES Switch eShop releases – Complete list

Looking at that list and don’t know where to start? Then check out our picks of the best SEGA AGES games – in no particular order – to get you off on the right foot.

The best Switch SEGA AGES games…

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: SEGA

Release Date: 10th Jan 2019 (USA) / 10th Jan 2019 (UK/EU)

Out Run may lack modern spit polish but it is the quintessential feel-good arcade racer and time has done little to dull its brilliance. M2’s emulation here makes the game more accessible than ever and only the lack of the 3DS port’s autostereoscopic 3D prevents this from being the ultimate version of the game. For anyone with an interest in retro gaming, it’s a must-have. Get the tunes on the radio, let the wind rush through your hear and head towards that blue sky horizon.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: M2

Release Date: 23rd Jan 2020 (USA) / 23rd Jan 2020 (UK/EU)

There is certainly no shortage of choice when it comes to shmups on Switch, and while the genre might have a reputation for being hard-as-nails and gritty, but there’s no reason they can’t have some colour. M2 works its usual magic on Fantasy Zone, a classic shmup with that added SEGA blue skies wonder. With the addition of Upa-Upa mode which ditches the shop part entirely and gives you easier access to weapons and upgrades, this is a fine addition to the Sega Ages Switch library.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: M2

Release Date: 23rd Jan 2020 (USA) / 23rd Jan 2020 (UK/EU)

Adding a new AGES mode which permits ol’ Joe to more than a single hit (as per the original arcade release), Shinobi is a classic you should seek out if you’ve only ever played the Mega Drive version. In addition, a rewind feature means you’ve got no excuse not to get to the end of this classic now. It might not be the longest experience, but it sure is a sweet one.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: Technosoft

Release Date: 20th Sep 2018 (USA) / 20th Sep 2018 (UK/EU)

The second entry for this genre on our list, the Sega Ages release of Thunder Force IV presents a perfect port of the classic 2D shmup that includes a handful of extras enabling gamers of any ability to get the most out of this shooter. The indignity of selecting ‘Kids Mode’ aside, it’s a welcome option to make a brilliant game accessible to as many players as possible, and this fourth entry in the Thunder Force series deserves your time.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: M2

Release Date: 27th Jun 2019 (USA) / 27th Jun 2019 (UK/EU)

M2 really pushed the boat out with its port of Virtua Racing on Switch. Purists may bemoan the differences between the original 1992 arcade release and this version, but the fact is that the game is simply ‘better’ here than it has ever been. You get 1080p (when docked), 60fps, reduced pop-in, new modes and up to 8-player same-console split-screen multiplayer. Those searching for the pixel-perfect ‘authentic’ experience may wish to look elsewhere; anybody else should download the best port of Virtua Racing ever released quick-smart.

Publisher: SEGA / Developer: M2

Release Date: 20th Feb 2020 (USA) / 20th Feb 2020 (UK/EU)

Of course, here he is! The fact is that you almost certainly already own Sonic 2 – possibly multiple times. It’s a platforming classic and it’s in fine form on Switch. Alternatively, the original Sonic the Hedgehog is equally fine and adds optional extras like the Spin Dash from the sequel and the drop move from Sonic Mania. Besides the lack of widescreen support–something that the Christian Whitehead-helmed mobile versions of these games support beautifully–the only real negative with these two classics is how overly familiar they are. We’ve seen re-releases across most every platform since their original launch, but if it has been a while since you sprinted through Emerald Hill Zone with your buddy Tails at your side, the Sega Ages version is a fine way to revisit the game.

Never saw the sun, shining so bright, never saw things, going so right! Let us know which of M2’s Sega Ages games you’ve most enjoyed, and which ones you’d avoid, with a cheeky comment below.

Fishing tournaments have been part of the Animal Crossing series for a while, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no exception.

Today sees the first fishing tourney to come to the Switch game, with the aim being to hook as many fish as you can in 3 minutes. With the event now underway in New Horizons, it’s the perfect time to get your fishing rod ready and buy a whole bunch of fish bait.

Of course, with the Animal Crossing Bunny Day event happening concurrently, you should be prepared for some mild annoyance as many of the ‘fish’ you’ll hook will, in fact, be Water Eggs.

One of the highlights of the Nintendo Mini Direct presentation was the announcement EA would be bringing Criterion’s Burnout Paradise Remastered to the Switch at some point this year.

The reveal trailer simply said it was coming in 2020, but what month exactly? Well, according to the EA Poland website, the game will be pulling up on Nintendo’s hybrid system this June – with pre-orders supposedly opening on 23rd April. Here’s a screen capture of the translated game page. Note: the price equates to $49.99 / £44.99.

At the moment, Nintendo’s website still has the game down as a ‘2020’ release. Whenever it does arrive, this version will be packed with eight pieces of DLC, more than 130 vehicles to write-off, additional areas to explore and “hundreds” of online challenges. It’ll also run at a smooth 60fps and will include “pinch-and-pull map control” for ease of navigation.

Do you think June is a likely release date for Burnout Paradise Remastered on Switch? Will you be adding it to your own game library? Tell us below.