Engaging with VR feels wholly different to traditional gaming. Even when playing a conventional first-person game, the interface, voice-over (VO) and occasional camera-grab all remind you that you’re portraying Booker DeWitt or Adam Jensen or Indiana Jones. But crucially, the space between you and the screen reinforces that separation. Booker’s over there, in Columbia, while I’m in my living room, seeing the world from his perspective.
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There are many considerations to factor in when planning how to update and expand a live service title, but chief among them is what players best respond to.
Over the past 15 years, influencer marketing has evolved from a novel approach to an essential component of any modern activation related to a game's launch or significant content update.
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During a talk given at the recent CEDEC event in Yokohama, Japan, development leads within Sony discussed their recent efforts to implement AI and machine learning models to improve efficiency and accuracy within the QA process.
If you're reading this article, you've likely created an original IP or are planning an original title. Your game may be performing well and you've got a regular fanbase in place, but what next?
Everyone should be able to enjoy games without fear of discrimination, harassment, or bullying. Yet, new reporting by Deloitte shows that progress on this front has remained elusive, for women for instance.
Mobile games now serve global audiences. Gone are the days when free-to-play mobile audiences were concentrated in Tier 1 gaming markets in the west and the far east.
At Develop Brighton last month, Criterion general manager Charity Joy gave a talk on the art of leading people who are themselves managing other leaders, sharing the tools she's picked up along the way in her career in game development.
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For the past three weeks, GamesIndustry.biz has been exploring how games studios can counter the rising costs of development and make games in a more efficient way through a series of interviews, panels, videos and podcasts.
At the recent BAFTA Games Mental Health Summit, a panel of actors discussed what they'd like to see improve in the industry to benefit their mental wellbeing as performers.
No industry has been left untouched by the looming presence of artificial intelligence – and gaming is no exception. But the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney have somewhat obfuscated the fact that AI has been influencing development in one way or another since at least the 1980s.
The indie space is incredibly exciting, and increasingly competitive. Players can only pick so many games a year and with discoverability being one of the leading issues for developers (and players), there's a case to be made that PR is as vital as ever.
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UK studio Ant Workshop has embarked upon a significant shift in how it makes games, and it's one that managing director Tony Gowland believes could benefit a lot of developers.
In light of the ongoing layoffs and studio closures in the games industry, a panel at the recent BAFTA Games Mental Health Summit looked into how you can navigate uncertainty and stay resilient in times like this.
Mock reviews are a widespread practice within the games industry, yet due to the secretive nature of the work involved, they remain an under-discussed branch of the feedback process – particularly in comparison to fields such as QA and player testing. With most mock reviews and game evaluations written under heavy NDA, it's perhaps unsurprising that we hear little about this line of work.
Everyone has a favourite video game tutorial. Maybe it's the first hour of Fallout 3, which quite literally treats you as a baby, teaching you new mechanics at different stages of growth? Perhaps it's Half-Life 2's iconic tutorial that packs everything you need to know into four words and one empty can of soda?
There's no shortage of success stories surrounding Baldur's Gate 3, and Larian Studios creative content manager Ben Maltz-Jones added to the stack in a Game Developers Conference session titled "Roll Play: The Strategy Behind Baldur's Gate 3 on TikTok."
Navigating the world of influencer partnerships can be daunting for game publishers and developers, but a well-structured deal can create an invaluable, campaign-defining activation that makes the difference between a game arriving to modest fanfare or becoming an unignorable, widespread presence in gaming culture.
Fan demakes are a popular genre on platforms like itch.io. They distil the essence of a beloved IP and marry it to the limitations of older platforms to create something entirely new.
Getting your game noticed isn't easy, and it's particularly tough for indie game developers right now. Players' gaming backlogs are bigger than ever, and with an abundance of AAA games constantly entering the market – not to mention over 75,000 listed titles on the Steam marketplace – it's no wonder we're all being more selective with what we play.
The behemoth that is the games industry has profound responsibilities towards its players, and these are ever-evolving. Unfortunately, right now, actions towards accessibility – making games suitable for their disabled audiences – fall short of where they should be. Thankfully, accessibility is gaining more attention and traction across the industry though.
Nailing the mobile games scene is all about grabbing users' attention, getting them excited to download your mobile game, and ensuring they have a great time playing it. However, as a mobile game developer, you might find yourself at a crossroads when it comes to executing user acquisition campaigns. This could involve establishing an in-house user acquisition team within your studio, leveraging the expertise of a mobile marketing agency, or collaborating with a mobile game publisher.
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In a talk during our GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit late last year, games industry comms veteran Cat Channon gave pointers about communication through change, and how to take into account the human impact of change when sharing information with staff, whether about layoffs, big M&A deals, or real-world calamities that might be affecting staff.
Imagine this scenario: you found your dream game company, they have the perfect opening for you, the job spec is a great fit to your skills and experience, the project is cool and exciting. You decide to prepare an application, you brush up your resume and write a tailored cover letter explaining why you’re the best candidate for this role, and send it their way.
Over the next two weeks, GamesIndustry.biz will be exploring ways to find the right career in the video games business and how you can get started as part of our Get into Games special.
The early stages of running a new business is difficult, and this is no less true for game developers. Fortunately, there are programs and initiatives out there that can help give you and your new studio a leg up when it comes to overcoming the initial hurdles.
Players expect more from their games, now more than ever before. Over the past twenty years, the scope, budget and audience expectations of games have inflated, and smaller studios are left seemingly locked in a cycle of diminishing returns on increasingly ambitious productions.
Crafting a robust game economy is no small feat; it's a multifaceted challenge that demands careful consideration. The goal of game economy design is to maintain the vitality of your game in the long run. Economic problems can cause entire projects to collapse.
At the GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit in September, organisational psychologist Graham McAllister presented a talk entitled 'Game vision alignment: Its role in team effectiveness,' exploring how studios can improve their games by maintaining a clear vision of what they're creating.
Managing and leading people is an essential part of every healthy studio. It's what leads people to stick around and enjoy their work, get the support they need, and it can make or break a development team.
Roll7 has been a remote working studio for seven years now, and as such the OlliOlli and Rollerdome developer might have a little more experience than most in how to make the set-up work.
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There has been a lot of activity recently from EU and UK legislators with each seeking to outdo the other with new laws being introduced at every turn. There is also increasing regulatory activity and enforcement relevant for the games industry, with consumer regulators building capabilities through investment into technology and staff.
With great power comes great responsibility. That's not only the oft-misquoted philosophy of Spider-Man's Uncle Ben, it was also the central theme of a talk by No Brakes Games' head of studio Sitara Shefta at Develop Brighton earlier this year.
At Devcom last month, senior narrative designer Arden Osthof gave a talk entitled "Playing with gender: A design framework for character customisation," giving tips on how game makers can improve their protagonist creation tools to be more inclusive.
There are many wonderful learning and educational opportunities available online, and in an ideal world we create an online environment where children can thrive.
Independent game studios often walk a tightrope: on one side, the thrill of creating a unique gaming experience, and on the other, the precipice of financial ruin. The lifeline in this risky venture? User acquisition.
The idea of introducing menstrual leave at GOG was born over a year ago during a meeting, when several employees drew attention to this common problem.
The video games sector continues to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, with the market expected to reach $205 billion by 2025 according to Newzoo. It’s an exciting time. However, a significant challenge remains: the shortage of tech skills.
Whether you’re leading a studio of ten people or 100, building a group of quality team members is of the utmost importance. Vision, ideas, and planning are useless without staff that can turn them into reality.
For decades, game development was done by groups in shared physical spaces. How we interact is ingrained in our psyches and partly defined by the physical spaces we inhabit, as we've seen in the array of weird, wonderful, and playful office designs that are commonplace in the industry.
Earlier this year, a GDC talk entitled 'From Rosy-Eyed to Dissatisfied: What Game Education Is Missing' addressed the main issues game students encounter, and how to solve them.
Games-as-a-service refers to a monetization model in which the game is developed and released as a continually evolving service, rather than a one-time product. The game receives ongoing support from developers over years, and generates revenue through subscriptions or in-game purchases.
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The indiepocalypse has been discussed at length over the last few years. It's the idea that there are so many indie games available on the market that it becomes unsustainable.
With the mobile game market’s outstanding growth over recent years, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how young of an industry it still is. However, following a post-Covid market decline – which in reality, was more of a market correction – and tightening privacy regulations, games industry operators and investors alike have been quick to doubt the industry’s growth potential with some even declaring that mobile game marketing is dead.
Each company cares a lot about its funding. Whether it's to develop a new game, grow a studio, or transform a gaming passion into a successful business, none of this would be possible without resources.
Crunch, working conditions, and mental health have been topics of frequent discussion in the games industry for years. At last month's Game Developers Conference, a panel of personal and professional experts discussed the subject at length.
The number of developers choosing to self-publish is on the rise, sparking questions around whether publishers are needed at all. Are they just middlemen that can be cut out of the equation altogether?
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At GDC last month, Lightforge Games CEO Matt Schembari shared the studio's approach to salary transparency and the benefits across the company to have an open salary policy.
Working on a licensed property can be a dream come true for many, especially if it’s for a franchise you have a strong emotional connection to. I’ve been truly blessed that at ClockStone Studio I’ve gotten to work on titles like Bridge Constructor: Portal, Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead, and most recently Lego Bricktales.
Every outfit tells a story. Characters aren't just defined by their facial features or physique, a lot of who someone is and what they're about comes from their style and environment.
When I began working on my first Early Access title, I was very sceptical about the whole model. As a marketer, I feel that Early Access games are a bit harder to promote as opposed to full releases. The press doesn’t show much interest in Early Access games and the consumers behind Early Access titles have a different mentality too.
When we ask Gamesight CEO Adam Lieb and CMO Nicole Yang what's the big story in the world of game advertising, the answer they give is very clear: TikTok.
Video game effects are often remarkable for their intense explosions of color and bright, magical appearances. Trying to find that perfect combination of colors for your own effects can be difficult.
