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

[jonaz.dk]

Unreal Engine 5 Preview version is here. So it's out of early access and onwards to a full production ready release somewhere in the near future.

[jonaz.dk]

More from Next Fest.. will update if I find nice things. Not too much gametime this weekend though. Still have quite the list to grind through.

Silt is a pretty nice atmospheric adventure taking a deep dive into a black and white world of creatures from the deep.


Demo out on


Adding:
Souldiers is also a nice little fantasy metroidvania platformer

[jonaz.dk]

Valve's Gabe Newell Takes A Flamethrower To The Metaverse And NFTs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/ ... 7272541a6a

Also worth a watch. Especially the part about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).
A dystopian outlook, let's hope it never comes this far. Freedom in ALL aspects is always worth fighting for!
The Evil Business of the Metaverse

[jonaz.dk]

Turns out the exclusivity period on the Huawai AppGallery was rather short for KILOO's new runner, MetroLand.

Now it is possible to pre-register the game on GooglePlay.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .metroland

[jonaz.dk]

The Witcher 3 first person mod

Grab it here
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5706

[jonaz.dk]

In this absolutely insane and unprecedented time with a full scale war (invasion) being waged by Putin and his ilk on the free and democratic nation of Ukraine in our European backyard. Just 2 hours flight away from Denmark, with (more than ever) potential to escalate into a full blown WW3 and threats of using nuclear weapons.
If you ever were in doubt, during the cold war, Denmark was targeted by the USSR with complete nuclear annihilation if any such event were to break out at the time. I have little doubt the plans has changed much in this scenario. Let's hope it never comes this far.
Even if it never comes to that. This conflict will already have huge negative consequences for the world. Even hurting Russia and Belarus themselves more than you can ever imagine, reverberating through history. That is not "strong leadership", that is insanity.
And if you think Putin will just stop at Ukraine if he is allowed to win. You are wrong. He is on a mission to reestablish as much as he can of the Soviet Union.
On his conquest It is heartbreaking to see brothers fighting brothers (well not brothers anymore) in Putin's war while transforming Russian into a, more than ever, totalitarian hell hole as the likes of North Korea. All because Putin is a man of many insecurities. NATO mainly expands because the neighboring countries does NOT want to be part of Putin's Russia. He is a man on a tragic self defeating mission. He will only drive more countries and people away from his insane regime. History will remember him as just another totalitarian dictator that brought nothing but destruction to others and his own people.

Even S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 was put on pause. It might never resume?! who knows!

In all this it warms my heart to see some of big boys with deep pockets in the Danish games industry put some real money on the table for humanitarian aid for the victims of this disastrous war.

May this horrible situation end as soon and as good as possible.

Respects to everybody taking a stand and action against this insanity wherever you are!

Update 1: Help Ukrainian gamedevs – for companies & organizations
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... Q/viewform

Update 2: Unity: Ukraine Fast Track Application
What we're offering:

- Visa sponsorship in either Denmark or the U.K. for you and your immediate family members (other locations in EMEA will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis);

- Flights from wherever you can safely and legally travel and/or reimbursement of driving expenses to the new work location;

- Temporary furnished housing, settling-in assistance in your new location, and other support offered through Unity's relocation program,

- Salary benchmarked to the local market where the job would be based;

- Comprehensive benefits package including mental health services along with all other well-being and financial benefits available to Unity employees;

- The ability to do ground-breaking work in an innovative, rapidly growing company that is ready to support you!

https://careers.unity.com/position/ukra ... H8s_X2rPF8

Update 3:
itch: Bundle for Ukraine
https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine

Unity: Ukraine Mega Bundle
https://assetstore.unity.com/mega-bundles/ukraine

Update 4:
Indie game developers fleeing Ukraine, Belarus or Russia are warmly welcome to show their products and meet their customers at NG22 Spring on 17-20 May, online and at Slagthuset in Malmö, Sweden with no cost to participate. Join us in the Nordic Game Developer Showcase, and for three days showcase your game to the entire industry, meeting investors, publishers, the media and your peers from around the world.

https://nordicgame.com/exiles-exhibit-f ... rdic-game/

(This is some of the DK contributions I have spotted, there may be more)

Cofounder and former CEO of Unity, @davidhelgason has a donation initative running.








(US based now.. obviously started in DK)


Unity Ukraine Mega Bundle
https://assetstore.unity.com/mega-bundles/ukraine





(Sort of Reto-Moto related)




New add:

[jonaz.dk]

Plasticity by Nick Kallen

Ohhhh.. this seems like a sexy little NURBS modeler in development for hard surface models. Seems very intuitive and Blender like in it's design. Though I would like some more 'industry compatible' keys probably. Will take the software for a spin this evening.

Plasticity is currently in an early stage of development. So expect bugs!
The software is free until it hits v1.0. After that it's 25$ (extremely cheap) and no subscription. And it's semi-open source.

A quick intro


More on his channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCShYVl ... yGU5JukcPg

Go download the the latest beta release build here: (no exporting in beta)
https://github.com/nkallen/plasticity/releases

[jonaz.dk]

Playdead has posted a collection of presenations from the development of Limbo and Inside on their site over the years.



More on: https://blog.playdead.com/

[jonaz.dk]

One of my old friends from the NDS days, Jesper Rasmussen has released his solodev project Zombie School Attack after quite some years in the spare time cooker. It's a simple kids math game with zombies getting to know how it feels like getting math bombed.


Zombie School Attack (Browser game runs on mobile and desktop)
http://www.laxviking.com/jesper/zsa/?fb ... o8MIUJQ3Aw

[jonaz.dk]

Blender 3.1 released


https://www.blender.org/download/

[jonaz.dk]

DK release Unlaimed World by Refactored Games back from 2016 is currently 'almost free' on HumbleBundle.
Formerly known as Conlan's Claim.

The original Steam release landed on mixed reviews and the company by the two brothers went into hibernation. Still very much a DK game but they did register the company in Estonia. Morten has been working at Tactile for quite some years now afterwards. I don't think his programmer brother @køkkenting is in games anymore?

The links are not working anymore but I dug up an ancient 2010 thread on the site. Wow 2010 was cool! People was talking on the site. Crazy!
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1286&p=6449&hilit=conlans#p6449

A post portem would actually be quite epic as I know the development was quite the journey.

Unclaimed World is currently 97% off for €0.47 if you were ever curious but too cheap. Now is the chance!
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/unclaimed-world

[jonaz.dk]

Nordic Game Jam 2022 FRI, APR 29 - MAY 1 is getting closer!

Tickets (Early bird already sold out)
https://nordicgamejam.com/




And a nice little nostalgic throwback to the first Nordic Game Jam in 2006 at ITU! Back when I had time to do these things and with way less hair and beared. It's our project 'OneGun being presented. Didn't win but it was fun to do! Ping @hornet @Roquqkie


More on
https://web.archive.org/web/20160806030 ... am.org/06/

[jonaz.dk]

I guess this will be fine to watch with the kiddos! A lot of people who grew up with Sonic has families now so that's a great fit.

Kiddo1 enjoyed the first Sonic movie. I survived the viewing on his enjoyment.

The first movie did really well!
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl4244997633/

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Official Final Trailer

[jonaz.dk]

DK release: Voice Attorney by Bolverk Games.
For some sort of Google Nest Hub device. Never heard about it!
Also pretty sure I wouldn't want further Google surveillance in my home.

Also todays Bluehair quota has been maxed out, first the Sonic trailer and now this!

Assuming it's a client project for Google?! Grats on the release!
And very rare to see a fully voice controlled game!

[jonaz.dk]

Black Mesa: The 16 Year Project to Remake Half-Life | Noclip Documentary

[jonaz.dk]

Embacer Group embraces @InvisibleWalls, developers of First Class Trouble.
Grats!

[jonaz.dk]

Midnight Girl from Italic (@Thomas Ryder & Co.) Now has a Steam demo!

Thomas' earlier works includes the hit adventure game The Silent Age developed by House on Fire.

Will give the demo a spin just now!

[jonaz.dk]

Whaaaaaat! Absolutely crazy! Chris, Brian and team is rocking it with a half a billion+ DKK investment.
(Well it's just the 'usual casual f2p stuff' like everybody else in that space is doing) But business is booming, no doubt about that! And they seem to be aiming for more "high-quality" games whatever that implies.

The main company is registred in Portual now. Used to be Malta but started in Copenhagen. I think the newer sattelite studio FRVR Copenhagen is still a thing.

Casual games platform FRVR raises $76 million
Mobile and web-based casual games developer FRVR has raised $76 million from its latest funding round.

The round was led by Hiro Capital and featured participation from existing investors Accel and Makers Fund.

Founded in 2017 by now defunct Cape Copenhagen founder Brian Meidell and former Yahoo director of product and monetisation for games Chris Benjaminsen, Frvr has reported that since its launch the platform has accumulated over 1.5 billion players to date, with millions flocking to the platform every day.

The firm has stated that the investment will be used to secure additional "high-quality" games and content to the platform, as well as channels "in and beyond" app stores.
https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/78418/ ... 6-million/

[jonaz.dk]

Grats to Eddaheim!

[jonaz.dk]

Humble Bundle: Stand with Ukraine
https://www.humblebundle.com/stand-with-ukraine-bundle

[jonaz.dk]

Ubisoft Stockholm plus support studios is working on some fanzy new cloud tech thing Ubisoft Scalar.

Seems like at least one of the old Massive guys are working on it.

Also it seems like very inhouse tech only. And probably?? (clearly speculating here) in the end designed to nudge players onto some sort of cloud based subscription service in games built specifically for the tech. Requiring always perfect internet to work. So it may have its limits in appeal like Google Stadia. And then it doesn't really matter that the tech can push "unlimited" players and data and the devs are having an easier time developing for complex systems. MANY other factors are important than the underlying technologies.
Let's hope they can realise their amazing tech into a more player-useful product than Google could with Stadia. But I do have my doubts! Let's see what the future brings on this front. Only time will tell.
At least it sounds like they will use the tech beyond creating a better development environment.



More on
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/ ... make-games

[jonaz.dk]

EPISODE 20: Gamedesign og Hitman med Bo Blond Daugaard
https://www.idsu.dk/podcast/episode-20

[jonaz.dk]

Enemies – real-time cinematic teaser | Unity


More info on
https://unity.com/demos/enemies

A few tidbits in the thread
https://twitter.com/robcupisz/status/15 ... 2984117253

[jonaz.dk]

Info and website for Temari Battle System has surfaced.
It's kind of Robot Wars (yes with actual little robot/remote vehicles) for kids with a mobile AR layer on top.

The project was in development at the Copenhagen NapNok office when I was around at the time. Though I was working on other projects. Now a days I think the the main bulk of development is taking place at the Macedonian office. The project has been cooking for some 6-7'ish years now. It's an incredibility complex project with a lot of moving parts so that figures.

Let's see where it lands! There are certainly a lot of challenges left to reach the market. They will be showcasing the project at GDC, today actually.

Temariverse Teaser


Temari Gameplay


Temari Teardown


More on
https://www.temari.ai/

NapNok did an early teaser for the project back in late 2019
https://twitter.com/NapNokGames/status/ ... 3730333698

[jonaz.dk]

Den gamle sang napper vi lige eeeen gang til

I Sverige er spiludvikling en stor branche: I Danmark er det - knapt nok - kultur
https://www.version2.dk/artikel/i-sveri ... nok-kultur


**Og for resten lige en tanke til Brian Mikkelsen og Tommy Ahlers for at køre de eksisterende (måske ikke optimale) investeringsmuligheder for spilbranchen helt i grøften tilbage i 2018... flot!
https://www.borean.dk/dk/nyheder/brian- ... i-groeften