News! Tech! Tools! Talks! Games! And Stuff Worth Sharing!

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Re: News! Tech! Tools! Talks! Games! And Stuff Worth Sharing!

Unread post by jonaz.dk » 25 Dec 2022, 01:05

Oh shit... 8O talking about AI generated animated 3D game ready characters like 10 days ago in a post on the previous page.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4775&start=1550#p23663

And now you can join a waiting list for such a service... Can't believe how fast the AI field is moving.

Ok ok.. still early days and the output looks 'rather odd'. But the field will surely improve immensely over time. This is just the beginning.
Image

More on
https://masterpiecestudio.com/blog/3d-generative-ai

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 26 Dec 2022, 14:13

Death Stranding is free on the Epic Store today. With a few hours left.

Not that I have any stretch of time to play big ass open world games. ;)
Finally have a bit of semi-longer stretches of project time these days. :D

But very cool!

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/death-stranding

Didn't know this.. but yeah. Too bad it's not the Directors cut. Give-away is over anyways.
https://mashable.com/article/death-stra ... erver-down

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 28 Dec 2022, 13:24

Building Machines for a Better Future in 'Horizon'


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 29 Dec 2022, 15:33

And a special thought goes to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developers at GSC Game World in especially the Kyiv office and also in the new Czech Republic office.

Sad for everybody affected by one regime and leader's crazy ambitions. It's the civilized worlds job to teach Kremlin a lesson for the ages they will never forget. And kick their ass back to Russia out of every inch of Ukrainian land. So they will not repeat more invasions in Ukraine or elsewhere. It's a dirty horrible job where everybody suffers. But someone HAS to do it. (Simple business transaction)

Love from Denmark! And stay strong! Slava Ukraini! <3






Game looks great by the way!


They also lost one of their developers actively fighting for their freedom. RIP Fresh :cry:



Adding: Brand new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 trailer


So far they are aiming for a December 2023 release.

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 30 Dec 2022, 13:47

DK Danina Games former student release. Space Voyage: The Puzzle Game developed by a1Creator.




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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 31 Dec 2022, 18:57

A happy new year from yours truly! I wish all an incredible 2023!
🍾🎊🎇🎆2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣3️⃣🎆🎇🎊🍾

I know my 2023 will be quite remarkable. Getting married to the princess 💝👸🏼🦁💝

And profesionally 'some very exciting things' will be happening. More on that later. 🤓👍🎮

And soon Spiludvikling.dk can celebrate 20 years of independant existance.🤓👍👍

And thematically solodev Laumania can celebrate 4 million mod downloads for Fireworks Mania. Crazy good! 🤓👍👍
Grats to Laumania!
And everybody else who worked on some cool gameproject wether unreleased, released, successful or not.
I hope you all enjoy the love, craft and frustrations of making games as much as I do.

Cheers everybody! 🍾🥂🎊2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣3️⃣🍾💝🎊🎆

- Jonas





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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 02 Jan 2023, 13:23

Slipgate Ironworks absorbs all of ALL CAPS! Grats to all! :)

I did have a feeling something like this would happen.

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LinkedIN post
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/freschis ... er_desktop

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 02 Jan 2023, 23:33

The yearly DK games quiz from @Vanulla_Ace 2022 is online.

(In Danish)

Det danske spilår 2022
https://take.quiz-maker.com/QY5241A84

Tired when I took the quiz, only got 13/16 on first try. :| So there is plenty room to beat me! But currently on #1 :)

Go nuts!

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 03 Jan 2023, 10:02

Last years news that nobody knew! And I also missed, as it was never really communicated to a larger audience I think. ;)
Kogama has been very quite on some recently.

The news is that web game platform Kogama (By Multiverse ApS) got sold to the Swedes! At Adventure Box Technology AB.
They now own 100% of Multiverse ApS and Kogama Works ApS.

So grats to Multiverse after 12 years of running.

The about us section on Adventure Box mentions Kogama has about 750.00 active which is nice! Though also very far from the potential numbers from competing platforms like Roblox.
https://corp.adventurebox.com/se/om-oss/

The latest financials from 2021 indicates that Multiverse is in a healthy situation after some problematic years, a small success story. :)


Wondering what will happen to the local competitor Crey. They have been burning >A LOT< of cash since 2018. Time will tell! But it is a difficult market.

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 06 Jan 2023, 16:11

Article from Version2 in Danish on Slipgate's acquisition of ALL CAPS.

Dansk spiludvikler vil på væksteventyr: “Langt flere bør satse og rejse med"
Brian Martin Nielsen, CEO og medgrundlægger af spilstudiet ALL CAPS, har en opsang til Danmark og den danske spilbranche. Læs om de tre store problemer, der skal overkommes for at tage dansk spilindustri til næste niveau.
https://www.version2.dk/holdning/dansk- ... wXnx5PXwXQ

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 06 Jan 2023, 18:42

EPISODE 26: Historien bag Forest Quartet med gæst Mads Vadsholt

Spillet Forest Quartet har været undervejs i næsten 6 år. Spillet udkom på steam i December 2022. Hovedmanden bag projektet - Mads Vadsholt - fortæller om ideen bag projektet, og om den lange udviklingsrejse han og projektet har taget sammen.

Vi taler bl.a. om hvordan vilje og stædighed er vigtige egenskaber for en indie udvikler. Mads fortæller anekdoter om hvordan networking med andre spiludviklere, flere år senere kan føre til samarbejde og forretningsmuligheder.

https://www.idsu.dk/podcast/episode-26? ... FcgYa6I6Jc

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 08 Jan 2023, 22:50

Further refinement in AI driven character locomotion

What a time to be alive!
Can't wait for this tech to become standard in the popular game engines.


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Jan 2023, 09:40

Kickstarter for DK project Gaiarus Idle Tower Defense the PC version.. Developed by Infinity Game Studio ApS.



Not really sure an idle game mobile port to PC is the best cocktail for the Kickstarter community. ;)
But there it is!

Image

The game came out in around April 2022 on mobile.

Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... werDefense
iOS
https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/gaiarus-i ... 1607748098

Trailer

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Jan 2023, 12:29

More in the AI chat based services. A service called Character.AI lets you chat with some pretty advanced chat bots.
Game Designer Bot is trained on 1200 game designs and might be fun to brainstorm with.

And don't take what is says too seriously. AI doesn't (yet) really know what it is talking about. But it can could be helpful if the input and stars are aligned.

Even today I used ChatGPT for just brainstorming acronyms and it was just super awesome at coming up with relevant useful words.
It's a process that just enhanced what was already good.

Game Designer Bot
https://beta.character.ai/chat?char=wB_ ... iY1bQl60GA

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Jan 2023, 21:03

The DK developed social deduction game First Class Trouble from Invisible Walls will be free on the Epic store.
From this Thursday 12th to the 19th of January.

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https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/first-class-trouble

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 10 Jan 2023, 09:42

Creating Resonance with Thematic Tabletop Game Design

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 10 Jan 2023, 09:58

Indie Gaming This Week: 09 - 15 January 2023

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 11 Jan 2023, 16:15

Ghostship Games buys a share of Bolverk VR Games! Namely the stake Capnova owned in the company.
Currently Bolverk is working on VR game Genotype. More here: http://playgenotype.com/

Cool bananas! :cool: Grats to both parties!


Adding rant: No purchase sum was disclosed. But it is a minority stake. Details of this specific deal is unknown to me.

To my knowledge Capnova would usually invested in around the 1-3 million DKK range. (And usually a not very good deals for the developers.. but that's a different story and there were very few local alternatives at the time for money in that "large" range with a games industry focus.. well not a lot of money compared to the rest of the games industry abroad, it was peanuts). And if you didn't have an almost instant hit like SYBO on your hands and could buy out the Capnova investment rather quickly your company could find itself in a world of pain returning the investment.
I guess we'll never truly know if the 'Capnovasized' (høhø) companies could have made success if they had better deals to begin with. Probably yes! Some unknown percentage would have been able to do doing better things.
Happy to see Bolverk as a surviving company.

Clearly Capnova is in the process of closing down and selling off their ownership in the remaining company portfolio.
Capnova also exited the sister company Bolverk XR (spotted on CVR) to other investors (not games industry related).
Interesting who the next studio will be.

Vækstfunden was supposed to lift be the new Capnova but with better deals. But has not yet been able to lift it in any meaningful way and make a real difference in the Danish games industry. Perhaps a combination of missing competence and interest with a degree of risk aversion on top.

The games industry is probably also the best to invest in the games industry anyways. Much in-depth knowledge is required to make the best bets and develop the best deals for companies and not trapping them in some unforsaken situation. However well intended that may be. Not sure any quasi public organ could do that well. Public funding is a different matter though and there seems to be something in the works. Let's see where it leads.

Ghostship Games is doing a massive service and mantle lifting of the local games industry. Much awesome and needed! :cool:
They are not alone but the most active I have observed. More reinvestment from other successful ventures would be nice. :)

We can only hope a new era is upon us with >real smart money< placing good bets on emerging companies and teams. And the educational sector would at least catch up to our northern neighbors within a few years.
And the fundamental investment environment could be greatly enhanced for small and large investments in the games industry.
And a reintroduction of IVS company registration.
And many other things.
This is probably all dream thinking. But there is always hope. At least in small glimmers here and there.

Image

Story
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dahladvo ... 58560-O_qx

Link to GamesPress story

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 11 Jan 2023, 23:08

And in relation.. Deep Rock Galactic is doing >really< great! Fun to see in concrete numbers. :)


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 12 Jan 2023, 12:30

10 years of Subway Surfers!

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 13 Jan 2023, 18:25

How Gloomwood Combines Survival Horror & Immersive Sims

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 13 Jan 2023, 19:33

PortaPlay rebrands to Bird Island.

Grats to my former colleages and friends. I will not be joining this journey... Or maybe some of my tech art will survive on the first trip.


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 14 Jan 2023, 13:57

Epic Marketplace free of the months assets Jan 2023


Grab it here
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplac ... 0&tag=4910

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 17 Jan 2023, 09:00

Bliv del af eksportfremstød for danske spiludviklere til Game Developers Conference (GDC) i San Francisco

Dansk Erhverv arrangerer i samarbejde med Producentforeningen, Vision Denmark og Trade Council i USA det første eksportfremstød for danske spiludviklere til den årlige Game Developers Conference (GDC) i San Francisco den 20.-24. marts 2023


https://www.danskerhverv.dk/kurser-og-e ... francisco/

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 19 Jan 2023, 19:12

Oh super busy making awesome stuff. :D
So totally missed yesterdays big news. Massive layoffs at 343 Industries, Bethesda Game Studios, Microsoft and Unity.
Generally there is a lot of job cutting in the larger tech industry at the moment.

Not sure how many jobs are affected at Unity in Copenhagen yet. If any?!

All in all it's 284 jobs and specific projects getting canned and overlapping positions.

This is following a lot of job cuts at Unity in June 2022 (225 cut) where most of the marketing department got axed in Copenhagen.
I know some was just offered other positions at Unity. I assume the homeless druggie population did not increase (too much) ;) and everybody is just fine. Maybe even in a better place where they are now. Who knows! :)

Cheers to new adventures for everybody affected!

Unity Software Lays Off More Workers as Tech Job Cuts Grow
https://www.wsj.com/articles/unity-soft ... 1673974721

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