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

[jonaz.dk]

Friday bar in Aarhus

FRIDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2022 FROM 16:00-22:00
Gameyard Aarhus — Fridaybar #003
Hosted at KILOO

[jonaz.dk]

Oh there is another DK Kickstarter 'Coffey drone shooter' by Hyrax Games. (Solodev I think)

The KS is not looking super well at the moment. Currently funded with 6kr. out of a tiny goal of 10.000 kr. with 10 days to go.

Adding: If anything this illustrates that just jumping into a Kickstarter without a massivly prepped and prepromoted campaign of a high quality will be very very challenging.







More on:
https://hyraxgames.weebly.com/

Demo on itch (It needs a lot of work)
https://hyraxgames.itch.io/coffey-drone-shooter

[jonaz.dk]

A couple of fresh DK releases... pretty much solo projects (I think) both of them.

Mage and Mosters (There's a demo) developed by Lasse Zacho Malver.


Vs Chat Pack, A game targeted at streamers playing with their audience. Developed by
KevDK Games.

[jonaz.dk]

'Sunless Skies': A Narrative Postmortem

[jonaz.dk]

Glyph from (DK) Bolverk games is 90% for a while, both on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Also it's an excellent game!



Glyph on Nintendo Switch
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/glyph-switch/

[jonaz.dk]

Also boomer shooter Cultic published (Not developed) by DK owned 3D Realms is out.

So far the reception has very very positive. 98%'ish.

Played the demo a while back and I agree with data at the time, It was great!
Also early sales estimates looks very good!
So grats to 3D Realms!

Also I assume the budget was relative low being a retro styled game. So only good choices there!

[jonaz.dk]

Quite interesting!.. The latest in VR tech at Varjo blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world on a next level.

[jonaz.dk]

RetroAhoy: X-COM

[jonaz.dk]

The complete overview of Unity toolsets and workflows for technical artists

Unity for technical artists: Key toolsets and workflows, aims to provide for experienced and technical artists alike. While the original version of the e-book was based on the 2020 LTS, this latest iteration reflects what’s available in 2021 LTS. Read on for a preview of what’s inside.

The first of its kind, this new guide compiles detailed summaries of all Unity systems, features, and workflows for experienced technical artists. Use it as both a source of inspiration and a reference for accessing more advanced creator content to expand your skill set.

Post
https://blog.unity.com/technology/compl ... al-artists

E-Book
https://resources.unity.com/games/unity ... gated=true

[jonaz.dk]

Playable demo of (DK) Gamucatex deckbuilding game Tectonicus: On the Edge of War

Playable on web and PC download.
https://gamucatex.itch.io/tectonicus

[jonaz.dk]

THIS | GAME
Games Conference and Community in the Nordics

At THIS GAME 2022, we focus on the dynamics of the games we play and the vibrant communities that form around them. Games and their community of players are co-dependent and evolve through a shared passion revolving around experiences, gameplay, storytelling, co-creation, art, the worlds and the business models surrounding it all.
https://thisaarhus.com/track/thisgame/

Meet’n’Greet
After THIS GAME, we invite all game developers to a Meet’n’Greet at the incubator Ideas Lab in Filmby Aarhus.
https://thisaarhus.com/speaker/meet-greet/

[jonaz.dk]

O3DE seems be getting more useable.



More on
https://www.o3de.org/

[jonaz.dk]

BetaDwarf's first game Forced is free for a limited time and a few sign-ups.

https://gleam.io/2ovdI/month-of-fun-forced

[jonaz.dk]

Noclip: Black & White

[jonaz.dk]

Spotted a new'ish swedish venture capital fund. Behold Ventures they have half a billion (SEK I assume) to invest and is founded by industry veterans. According to this article
https://www.breakit.se/artikel/34803/be ... fb2AodqPI0

Also just spotted two Danish projects in their portfolio already!
- Playwood Project (Wartile. Successor)
- Eddaheim (Neon Knights: Humanity Erased)

Grats on the investments already landed!

More on:
https://behold.vc/


ALSO! *** 600.000 *** Thread views.. yay!

[jonaz.dk]

Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition is free on GOG for a limited time

https://www.gog.com/en/game/genesis_alp ... xe_edition

[jonaz.dk]

Deep Rock Galactic: Season 3 - Narrated Trailer

[jonaz.dk]

Meetup and work on game projects in Valby for Code&Chill KBH. Thursday 3rd November.

[jonaz.dk]

So on election day Heimdal Games has another political satirical game release.



More on
https://heimdalgames.org/kamp-valg/

Kamp Valg (Fight Election) Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... s.KampValg

AppStore
https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/kamp-valg ... 79431?l=da

[jonaz.dk]

Unite 2022 is happening today!.. also in Copenhagen. (completely missed it)

Hehe.. found out when one of my old friends sent photos from the event.

Live stream will be starting soon



Taking place at the Unity Copenhagen office.
More here:
https://getyourgameonincopenhagen.splashthat.com/

[jonaz.dk]

The unexpected logic behind rolling multiple dice and picking the highest.

[jonaz.dk]

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection free on GOG for a limited time

https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackra ... collection

[jonaz.dk]

November feebies for Unreal Engine!


Free for the month
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplac ... 0&tag=4910

Permanently free
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplac ... s?tag=4906

[jonaz.dk]

Modl.ai raises $8.4M to develop AI-driven play testing and QA bots

Danish startup Modl.ai has raised $8.4 million (or €8.5 million) in a series A funding. The round was lead by Griffin Gaming Partners and Microsoft’s M12 venture fund. Rendered.vc, PreSeed Ventures, and Transistormedia also participated.

Modl.ai seeks to automate processes like debugging and quality assurance testing for game developers. Through the company’s AI and machine learning driven bots, game developers can test their projects more efficiently and effectively.

https://venturebeat.com/games/modl-ai-s ... 1194015746

[jonaz.dk]

So it's release day for SYBO's Subway Surfers Match.

Turns out my earlier spotting of the project was indeed just the soft launch.

The game looks like pretty standard fare Match-3 game. With some team based FOMO? mechanics on top.
User reviews are very good! And 100K'ish downloads during soft launch. So I guess they will be gearing up with some serious UA in the coming time.

It's by no means easy to compete in the heavily saturated match-3 market. But I give it pretty good chances of going somewhere. But it's far from a given.
They are up against veteran match-3 companies in this space and who knows if the IP is the right fit for match-3. The target audience for the original Subways Surfers and 'Match'.. might not be completely compatible. But there is certainly a massive pool of players to pick from.
One lesson from the past in the danish games industry was when World of Football signed with Farmville giga Facebook gaming powerhouse at the time, Zynga.. but the audience (was it 100 million?!+) they could provide in their banner rotation was almost COMPLETELY uninterested in playing online real time soccer games.
Also Hugo Games' match-3 Hugo Flower Flush didn't catch on to make a serious business case. So prior examples has clearly demonstrated (obvisously there are many more factors, but still an indication) that even "huge potential playerbases" and massive IP exposure might not be enough if the game type and target audience are not in sync. Let's hope Surfers is a better 'match' this time around.
Also the market has shown an endless thirst for match-3 games so let's see! There is always the solution to throw money in the big ad machines to see if it makes sense to scale the player base that way.
I have no idea how many millions of monthly active (ad watching and paying) players they need to get the ball rolling on it's own accord. But it's probably a lot!

Studio branding wise.. well I don't think SYBO will win many aspirational or inspirational points with this title.

But it's probably good business if they can make it in this space. Hence the very stiff competition for the "housewife" casual gaming segment. Not completely up to date with the latest data, but last time I heard stats it is the audience most willing to pay.

Adding: The recent studio strategy seems to be to add the Subways Surfers IP to various game types with a moderate budget and see what sticks. This is following a lot of years where experimenting a lot but only releasing one new game and outside stuff like a shorter animation series and clothing. They were even working on an MMO concept for a while. The once announced AR grafitti project seems to be dead!? (probably a good idea to put it in the grave)
Also no news from the once annouced alternative Blades of Brim concept in development at Funday Factory, possibly dead as well?!
According to themselves they didn't know what they were doing. But atleast it was a bit interesting from an outside persepctive. But great to see them actually release a few games recently (Tag and Match).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... l=en&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/ph/app/subway-su ... 1589783564


Adding sourcing:
An minidoc showing a bit of their history and a few peeks of some of the canned/iced projects.