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 » 02 Mar 2023, 12:00

Another announcement from yesterdays Ghost Ship Publishing segment stream was

SpellRogue from (DK) two man team Guidelight Games.

Not new the the site. I posted about them before they were signed by GSP.

But it's looking good! :D
Also good feels about this one. Obviously DRG: Survivor game out on top in the wishlists.

Played the promising demo earlier




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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 02 Mar 2023, 21:45

And phew!! Finally!
The DarkSwarm Steam page is live!

Haha only took three tries.. so we totally missed the announcement window from the live stream. :rolleyes
Some things was us noobing around and messing up because we never released a game on Steam ourselves individually. And some was Valve employees noticing issues that other didn't notice.
Also in the midst of the whole Steam page process we had a VERY late title change of the game. So that caused some extra headaches.
BUT HERE WE ARE!!! Flipping happy about having a Steam page up and running for the game!

And many lessons learned!

And lots of warm heartfelt thanks to Ghost Ship for assistance and feedback along the way! :D ❤️️

Adding: And not forgetting a HUUUUGE thanks to Jacob Honoré from Octato for pushing me to craft a pitch for Ghost Ship. It was a huge speed boost of the process and we had a ton of fun! Sadly he is not part of this journey. Still super good buddies! ❤️️

Jump to Bitfire Games and Ghost Ship Games (Publishing) having a chat about the game here. (There is also info about there publishing setup before that)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1752502995?t=01h16m00s

The very early reception of the announcement has been incredible coming from pretty much nothing. :blush
A prototype I mostly made in my bedroom in my very limited spare time for a year. THERE WILL BE SOOOO much more cool stuff coming to DarkSwarm once we get a real team up and running. (Hiring soon!)

(I have a good feeling about this project... I flipping LOVE IT!!!) So a bit more biased than usual here. ;)

GO WISHLIST AND STUFF! :D :D :D

DARK AND SWARM!!
(Thanks to the DRG community) ❤️️



DarkSwarm on STEAM!!



Also social media links.. Twitter, Discord etc. is available here:
www.darkswarm.io
https://discord.com/invite/YDrrCwA (We are having a party on Discord)

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

Unread post by jonaz.dk » 03 Mar 2023, 12:51

Figment from Bedtime is free on Steam for a limited time! As Figmet 2 Creed Valley will be launching soon!


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 03 Mar 2023, 15:27

Robot Revolt by (DK) team dyt dyt (Nice name! <3)

Is out on Steam Early Access. Grats on the early release!





Thread on the Discord!
https://discordapp.com/channels/1077860 ... 4693198868

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 03 Mar 2023, 21:59

Godot 4.0: It's Almost a Brand New Engine! Full Breakdown of New Features


More on
https://godotengine.org/article/godot-4-0-sets-sail/

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 05 Mar 2023, 12:23

Siiick Half Life fan short!

PATIENT ZERO - A Half-Life Short [S2FM]

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 07 Mar 2023, 13:07

En portal til en anden verden
Direktør Frederik Schreiber har skabt en virksomhed i stormene vækst, der samtidigt giver plads til et kreativt arbejdsmiljø med medarbejdere på tværs af lande og forskelligheder. Alt sammen i et virtuelt univers under navnet Slipgate Ironworks.
https://hasserisavis.dk/en-portal-til-e ... TM.*_up*MQ

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Mar 2023, 14:01

Impressive tech! Would be nice if it was transferable and exportable to in-game characters in an easy way somewhere down the line.

Mark Zuckerberg Demos Meta's Prototype Photoreal Avatars

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Mar 2023, 14:03

Minion Masters from BetaDwarf is coming to the Netflix app for Droid and iOS.
Last numbers I saw the platform was sporting 1.7M DAU.. so there is some traction there. Let's hope BetaDwarf will find some players there. The game should be stripped of the F2P things for the mobile version.

Also Minion Masters 2.0 has been announced
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 7579894239


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 09 Mar 2023, 17:22

And today is launch day for Bedtime Digital Games creation Figmet 2: Creed Valley

As said earlier! I have a pretty good feeling about this one! :D
I'm sure the game will be (very even) well received by the players. What I saw earlier was a good step up from the first game in terms of gameplay and polish (judging from a smaller demo). And they are currently #417 on the Steam wishlist and will be available on Xbox, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.

A big grats to the whole team in Aalborg! :D
In less than an hour or so!




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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 11 Mar 2023, 12:19

Big Ambitions from Hovgaard Games is out on Steam Early Access!

Even got front page featuring! 🥳

As fully expected the game is of to an amazing start in reviews and estimated sales! 🥳🥳🚀🚀


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 16 Mar 2023, 11:38

(DK) Trophy games is certainly in the spending mood! And this time locally as well.

According to their linkedin post they has acquired Idle Necromancer and ZR from Goathamster.

LinkedIN post:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... Mf4AytfijU


Idle Necromancer video


The game has seen on GooglePlay +500K downloads and user reviews of 3,9. So modest success but looks like something that could be scaled. Scaling is very possibly what matters in this deal, and Trophy has the means to do so. Their public numbers for 2021 certainly looks very promising with 64M DKK in capital.

Grats to all! :)

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 16 Mar 2023, 13:19

Free (time limited) crash course in Embergen

More on:
https://redefinefx.com/magic/


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 16 Mar 2023, 16:57

And finally Void Crew from (DK) Hutlihut Games has been revealed! A 1-4 player co-op space ship crew game with a bit of shooty times.
Published by Focus Entertainment.

I know some good people at Hutlihut! And had a chat with them at their offices some time ago and saw a bit of their project. :)
But my own project had obviously a much bigger draw to my heart. I have been itching to show the world what our fellow co-op space nerd bois are working on!

I actually ride by their office every morning on my bike, it's pretty close to ours. :)

I wish them the best of luck when they are launching the game somewhere in 2023! :D





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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 17 Mar 2023, 19:05

Technically speaking it is not actual news. It was announced last year but they missed a deadline or so! :)

But Unreal Engine is being integrated with Fortnite. As 'Unreal Editor for Fortnite'
One could easily imagine that the recent deal with LEGO would be part of this to create a Roblox like platform.
LEGO as part of this is not confirmed though. But very likely in my opinion. Smart move Epic on both ends!

This of cause means bad news for poor Unity in the long run! As thousands of aspiring young developers could very easily be sucked into the tool set of a probably more simplified workflow of Unreal Engine. It could very much serve as the training wheels for the full Unreal Engine.
Well theoretically at least! If the plan works is yet to be seen. But probably! Wouldn't count it out it would have an effect.

Earlier Epic was throwing some money after Core (Looking like Unity) but built on Unreal. It is not my impression that Core never became a big thing. (Not surprised)


Personally I am not expecting an actual qualified market response from our Danish born Unity Technologies, now a US company.

Buying Roblox is probably not in the cards?!?! Roblox has A LOT of the young users! But both companies (Roblox and Unity) are operating at pretty huge annual losses... but minus * minus equals plus Jonas! ;)

And building a competing platform from scratch without the users....... good luck with that! ;)
I just don't think it was ever part of the Unity plan anyways.

So overall I think it spells somewhat bad news for Unity in the >long< run. All this will take years to play out of cause. It's not an instant effect but a long term strategic effect that will be something to deal with.

Having investors throw money at Unity seems like a more risky proposition to keep the company afloat until they (maybe) turn the boat around and start making money.
Unity seems to be diversifying as a company with it's various purchases. So let's see if that will be enough to keep it floating for the long term.
But focus will suffer.. and has been suffering for a long time. Unity works!! But also a bit of a patchwork of sometimes finished sometimes not so finished solutions.
** Adding: Both Unreal Engine and Unity is both HUGE engines with large file sizes and complexity and responsiveness. A small light weight game engine like Godot is like going back in time to work with something that is very light on it's footing. This alone could drive more and more devs towards the lighter engines like Godot. Though when a game engine has it's workflow and claws in developers it takes something extra to change and adopt new ways. In the long run I see Godot chipping away ever so slowly at especially the Unity indie market. Who knows.. maybe there will be some grand following moment at some point.


Google trends indicates that Unity is still king in global interest! Godot got a significant boost with version 4. (Only expecting steady growth there). Unreal Engine interest is tiny compared to Unity and somewhat static. Fortnite interest DWARFS all mentioned. Channeling developers into the Unreal fold will certainly have potential for Epic.
Also take into account that this is the big broad global averages that doesn't take the specific type of production into account. Eg. Unreal would be looking quite differently if we could filter for AAA like productions. Of which there are inherently fewer compared to indie and mobile games that Unity has a very firm grasp on. For now at least.. Godot 'might' change this in forthcoming years

Image
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... bc90&hl=en
Unreal Editor For Fortnite!

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite. With many of Unreal Engine 5’s powerful tools and workflows at your fingertips, including custom asset import, modeling, materials and VFX, Sequencer and Control Rig, you’ll have a whole new world of options for producing and publishing games and experiences for Fortnite that can be enjoyed by millions of players.
UEFN works side-by-side with Fortnite’s existing Creative toolset, and teams of creators can work together across PC and console to develop and test islands in real-time.
Also included is the new programming language Verse. It offers powerful customization capabilities such as manipulating or chaining together devices and the ability to easily create new game logic.


https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/fortnite--uefn

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 17 Mar 2023, 19:28

And while we are at it!!

This is a special message to the Danish educational institutions working with 3D computer graphics!

Is it just me or has almost all the 3D computer graphics focused educational institutions not caught up with the current reality?! A reality where Blender is increasingly and dramatically becoming the industry standard for 3D computer graphics and Autodesk products are on the way out.

Your educational institution should probably give this some thought.

Oh well.. just wanted to get that of my chest. ;)

Have a nice day all! I know it's not (only) the tool, but the person behind it combined with a lot of individual factors. And all the tools are very capable and speaks to a bit different audiences. And by all means, use whatever and in whatever combination, of 3D software you are familiar with and enjoy to produce the desired result. :)

Just wanted to provide some light on the current reality, for your consideration.

Cheers and peace out! :)


Adding: Full disclosure! I started out first seriously in Lightwave 5.6 privately for a few years in the late/mid nineties, got taught Maya 1.0 at school, converted on my own time to 3D Studio Max r3.0. Ran 3dsmax professionally for.. I don't know.. 20 years or so?! With tiny professional dabs into Cinema 4D, Maya and Modo. But in 2019 when Blender 2.80 landed... well it was time to change. Blender had finally matured enough and the introduction of the 'Industry Compatible' keyboard layout made the transition a breeze. Haven't looked back since.

Technically speaking AI has probably already won every aspect of entertainment and beyond in the nearish future+.. but for now in this moment in time Blender is a force of nature that should not be ignored.



Global Google search interest in comparison of 3dsmax, Maya, Cinema 4D vs. Blender for the past 5 years.. it is obvious.
Image
https://trends.google.com/trends/explor ... 3q2z&hl=en

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 17 Mar 2023, 23:56

GPT-4.. things are getting wild in AI.. as fully expected! Still it's just early days.

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 18 Mar 2023, 10:09

Big Ambitions from Hovgaard Games sells 100.000 units in first week of launch. 🥳

Grats to the team!

A special message from Uncle Fred.

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 18 Mar 2023, 16:14

DK indie spotting!

From Runic Dices Entertainment in Odense. A team of 10 devs have been working for 11 months on a new (what I think) is a survivors-like game with a viking theme, Nanokings.



Planned for Steam and XBOX release.



A Kickstarter is in the works, not launched (I do have my usual reservations)
Did inform the developer of my concerns.


Website:
https://runicdices.io

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 20 Mar 2023, 17:19

Neato trickery with ChatGPT integrated with Unity


Project on Github here:
https://github.com/keijiro/AICommand

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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 20 Mar 2023, 18:27

Subways Surfers does 4.000.000.0000 all time downloads! WOOOP! AMAZING!

Grats! Obviously this is not the amount of actual players downloading the game. But CERTAINLY utmost impressive regardless.
I would estimate that 4B downloads is indicative of also a very good retention, as in when people replace their phone they also have a good chance of re-downloading Subway Surfers. Perhaps the unique players count is 'around'ish the 1B mark?! That is also SUPER IMPRESSIVE nonetheless!

Now if they could only release just a billionth of the downloaded amount of games as new fresh in-house developed games in 10 years+. I would be almost truly impressed! ;)
To my (possibly) updated knowledge neither Subways Surfers Tag or Match are in-house productions. So still waiting for them to release something the main SYBO studio did themselves. (Since Blades of Brim btw.)
Sorry if Match is an in-house production.. not 100% sure and confirmed. Though I will certainly not be take my stinging sarcastic remarks elsewhere. ;)

(Adding: This is seen from an outsiders perspective that sees one new game released in 10 years+ (besides Surfers updates and related projects). And it was basically a very samey mobile game with some changes and a different skin, and a company with around or more than 139 employees and a public collective capital (ApS + Holding) or more than 400M DKK in 2021 numbers... something seems a bit odd as they are not able to release new games of their own internal creation.. to me it seems a bit dysfunctional as an organization.. sorry to say! But that is just what I can observe and nothing on the individual employee)


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 20 Mar 2023, 23:29

A worthy mention of Flashbulb's Trailmakers has made it to 'Overwhelmingly Positive' reviews on Steam.

That is not an easy feat! Congrats! :D


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Unread post by jonaz.dk » 21 Mar 2023, 09:11

Free free audio stuffs!
In celebration of #GDC2023 we are giving away 44GB+ of high-quality sound effects from our amazing vendors here at Sonniss. No attribution is required and you can use them on an unlimited number of projects for the rest of your lifetime. This bundle includes the 2021 and 2022 versions that we unfortunately missed! If you would like more options and design choices to work with, please consider purchasing the corresponding collection.
Grab it here!
https://sonniss.com/game-audio-gdc-2023

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