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[jonaz.dk]

Microsoft's Xbox expands, buying ZeniMax Media and Fallout maker Bethesda for $7.5 billion
The move marks a significant purchase in the gaming world and strengthens Microsoft's Xbox lineup ahead of a new launch in November.
https://www.cnet.com/news/microsofts-xb ... 5-billion/
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/21/ ... ox-family/


Boom! So that happend!
As previously stated. Microsoft really needed to step up their exclusive game (or atleast timed exclusives) in order to play a significant role in the nextgen console wars. Looks like they had the pockets and determination to make that move.
With the coming launch of the Xbox Series X and perhaps even more so the Xbox Series S. At a much cheaper price point for the masses. Things are certainly looking more bright for MS in this round than ever before.
Naturally people are >very< hard to turn from one eco-system to another. But these factors will most certainly boost their platform overall.

It would still be awesome to see the XBOX series also functioning as fully fledged Windows PC (Perhaps running as a virtual machine on the hardware). But this is not likely to happen.

I wonder if they will make a move in the handheld space sooner or later? Thinking (sort of realistically in this current day and age) Xbox One level of hardware. With streaming support from other windows/XBOX devices. Running on a Switch like device. Could be interesting. It would certainly be within the realm of technical plausibility and they have the pockets, titles and tech to pull it off. But it hasn't been their traditional playing field. So they might be hesitant. And the fact that pretty much only Nintendo has been truly successful in the handheld space (obviously not counting in the mobile phones market). But the world is just becoming increasingly mobile. So sooner or later I would count it as a realistic shot they might fire.

Oh yeah by the way.. imagine in a few years they manged to squeeze the hardware from the Xbox Series S/X down to a Switch like platform. That could make an actual dent in the market having the than current gen games running on a mobile device. And not just watered down ports and games from yesteryear.
And sure there is the X Cloud for lower performing devices. Could certainly be a candidate combination as well. But as always lots of challenges remains in the live gameplay streaming space.

[jonaz.dk]

IO Interactive's 17 year old 3rd person, squad shooter Freedom Fighters re-releases on PC. On Steam and GOG. Epic Store should be in the pipe.
It still has quite a verbal fanbase.
Played it back then, it was pretty good for it's time.



GOG:
https://www.gog.com/game/freedom_fighters

[jonaz.dk]

Subway Surfers UE4 recreation project

[jonaz.dk]

Nordic Game doubles up with NG20+

The second part of Nordic Game 2020 kicks-off this fall with NG20+ on 25-27 November, promising to deliver not only a second major Nordic games industry gathering this year but also twice the Nordic Game experience compared to NG20, our debut online conference last May.
....

https://nordicgame.com/nordic-game-doub ... -ng20plus/

[jonaz.dk]

Epic Store releases!

IO interactive's Freedom Fighters hits the Epic Store.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p ... hters/home

Reto-Moto's Heros And Generals WWII marches on to the Epic Store (New thing at the end, makes sense for search term optimization). Free as on Steam. Reto-Moto has not been doing super well lately. Showing red numbers for the past 3 years. Let's hope they will come out on top with this release. But I have my reservations that this release will mark a huge turning point. But obviously things will start to look a bit better. It might be enough to save them for a while. But all the competition has to do to keep them in check, is to do the same. So I suspect it might be a short lived future upturn. But fingers crossed it will be more than that.

Reto-Moto went from a really positive outlook from around 2015 to a quick downhill ride. I might presume the fierce competition in the WW2 F2P space was just too much to handle. And their game was perhaps not focused and well tuned enough for the audience.

Also I certainly think it is a sound move in the current light of things. In Epic store terms they are still very alone in the WW2 F2P shooter space on that specific store. On the other hand the Epic crowd mainly consists of a lot of very young Fortnite players. So the move will have a limited potential in the short term.
But looking to the future. They will probably have to come up with something new to thrive, beyond surviving in the years to come.
But let's see where it takes them for now.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p ... -wwii/home

One of the latest e-sports hits Rocket League goes free to play. Girlfriend's kiddo's team won the Scandinavia championship. Now they are on to the qualifying rounds of the world championship. My personal experience with Rocket League.. ahmn.. amounts to that I suck at it!
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p ... eague/home

[jonaz.dk]

I usually don't cover boardgames on the site. Doesn't mean they are not welcome! A few people have posted their projects on the site in the past. Personally my interest has peaked after I began actually designing them. I have designed 4 games with a really nice potential over the past months. Currently In various stages of development. I'm just having SO much fun! It has completely taken over my sparetime night and day. And pushed my other digital game projects to the side. I have to admit designing boardgames has become my new crack cocaine.

So let's celebrate the winners from this years Guldbrikken 2020!

Guldbrikken 2020

Vinder af “Årets Voksenspil 2020”
The Crew – Thomas Sing / Spilbræt.dk


Vinder af “Årets Familiespil 2020”
Arctic Race – Ulrik Morten Madsen / Danspil


Vinder af “Årets Børnespil 2020”
Rampelys Slammer – Tactic


Mere på
http://guldbrikken.dk/

[jonaz.dk]

From one of our (also) former basement buddies. @Malte_Burup's Mind Scanners gets a Steam Page and a release year. Early 2021. Go Malte! <




Speaking of "The Basement" in Gothersgade. I think we still have some extra space for your smallish company if you might need it.
Octato is moving to larger offices.
More in this thread --->
viewtopic.php?f=12&p=21731#p21731

[jonaz.dk]

MagicaVoxel Final Release*


https://ephtracy.github.io/

[jonaz.dk]

And more game IP based TV series inbound.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness - Teaser trailer.


A Splinter Cell based IP anime series is in the works.. (totally missed this). Guess it's fairly old news. Let's see if it ever materializes.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/splint ... 234612535/

[jonaz.dk]

For no particular reason. This is probably the best Monkey Island cover I have heard so far.

The Secret of Monkey Island - Main Theme | Cover by Julia Henderson


Oh and not forgetting 331Erock's metal rendition is also pretty sweet!


Oh AND just to set things straight... for the record.
There has been no proper Guybrush since 1991. If you disagree.. well too bad. You are incorrect!

Updated for 2022

[jonaz.dk]

Visual Game & Media Design Graduation Show 2020



Our 2020 Visual Game & Media Design graduation show from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design. https://kadk.dk/en/programme/visual-gam ... dia-design

Featuring student projects, industry cameos, games & animations. Students in order of presentation:

Alexis Emmanuel Lozano Angulo
https://www.artstation.com/eplundare, https://eplundare.itch.io/

Marusa Gorjup: https://marusag.artstation.com

Viktor Douglas Henderson: https://shark-ellipse-p2dj.squarespace.com/, https://www.instagram.com/hendersonviktor/
Hannah Jørgensen: https://www.behance.net/hannahjoergensen

Kasper Egholm Endahl: https://keeward.carbonmade.com/

Laura Blicher: https://www.laurablicher.com/

Song Wang: https://stormofwormhole.artstation.com/

Christian Søndergaard Weatherley: https://alandryl.wixsite.com/website

Joakim Carlsen: https://Joakimcarlsen.com

Lonnie Kamarainen Schrøder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CESRXfPqB9w

Shalev Moran: https://www.shalevmoran.com/

Wing Tsit Teresina Ho: https://www.teresinah.com/

Anahid Attaran Bandarabadi: https://www.behance.net/anahidat

Bjørn Højlund Rasmussen: http://bjornhojlund.mystrikingly.com/

Laurent Herve Gehin: https://laurentgehin.com/

Mathias Jess Pedersen: https://mathiasjp.itch.io/ruins

[jonaz.dk]

This months worth of free Unreal assets and plugins on the Epic Marketplace has landed!
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplac ... lang=en-US

[jonaz.dk]

I think I haven't plugged the plugin SmoothBooleans v2.0 for 3dsmax.
A super sexy piece of kit. Haven't tired it out personally. But for hard surface modeling it looks sick AF!

Blender is not up to this kind of snuff on the boolean side just yet. But I do love the shortcut keys that comes with the built in Bool Tool add-on.

So plugging the plugin! SmoothBooleans v2.0,

[jonaz.dk]

CGC live panel featuring one of my old colleges Sebastian.

It's worth a listen for indies looking to get published.

CGC live panel - Panel How to get published

[jonaz.dk]

Are Lives Outdated Game Design?


The Rise and Fall of Britain's Bedroom Coders | Design Icons


The Psychological Trick That Can Make Rewards Backfire

[jonaz.dk]

Finally had a little time to look at Sleep Tight from Bo Daugaard.
Though my play-through was interrupted mid way. So I didn't finish it quite yet.

But I must say! Really good job!! @bome99

As indie developer Bo also did 99 Levels To Hell back in 2014. The release party was great at Bo's place.
Also his band Double Stone played at the Spiludvikling.dk 10 years anniversary party! That was super awesome!

I'm not going to say a lot about it. Only.. give it a spin!
The game is free on itch in it's current development state.
https://troldkarlens-hat.itch.io/sleep-tight

Youtuber playing Sleep Tight if you want to spoil the experience. (But you probably shouldn't)

[jonaz.dk]

'Golden Axed: A Cancelled Prototype' will be free for one day only. Tomorrow the 18th October 2020.
Curious here.. though the shading and detailing on the characters doesn't really work to the games advantage over the original. Pixel art can just be so much more clearer and communicative. The modern spin becomes quite a messy frame to decode. But I'll give that ol' game prototype a shot regardless.




Also lots of free games from SEGA at the moment. Not that a PC gamer in 2020 is in any desperate need of even more free games. The time to play them is the actual problem. What spoiled times we live in.

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/ ... e/sega60th

[jonaz.dk]

The super impressive physics driven voxel based game Teardown is dropping fairly soon on early access.

Doesn't look like it's part of the current launch plans. But Imagine if they add multiplayer... bam!

[jonaz.dk]

Those puzzle boxes are getting ridiculous!



Aww cute! LEGO Zelda Master Sword Puzzle,

[jonaz.dk]

Well just a non game related geek post. In case you missed it. The Hacksmith has been working on various lightsaber projects for some time. This is their latest iteration of a functional lightsaber. More like a glorified blow torch. But I'll take it for now.

[jonaz.dk]

Photoshop 2021 features.. So just a few decades late.. Photoshop now finally comes with PATTERN PREVIEW!! for tileable textures.

Also a lot of fancy machine learning filters. But perhaps not super relevant to gamedevs. But cool none the less.

[jonaz.dk]

WHAT THE GOLF? swings out on Steam

[jonaz.dk]

Glyph from Bolverk Games is also out in a free alpha on itch.


https://bolverk-games.itch.io/glyph

[jonaz.dk]

Rebots from FlatPonies is also out with a free demo

[jonaz.dk]

Super impessive update for Voxel plugin 1.2 for UE4