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[jonaz.dk]

Copenhagen Gaming Week, 12–14 January, 2024 in Bella Arena and Bella Center

It’s official: Copenhagen Gaming Week is coming in Bella Arena and Bella Center 12-14 January 2024.

Copenhagen Gaming Week is the new and epic international festival uniting all aspects of gaming and esports in the Danish capital: Your chance to level up on futuristic tech, current trends, and retro classics while connecting with like-minded individuals who share your passion.

Immerse yourself in worlds where international esports tournaments electrify thousands of spectators, and passionate superfans assemble from all realms.

Tickets are on sale through www.copenhagengamingweek.dk

[jonaz.dk]

DK project spotting: Bobls from Softlock.

Demo release trailer


Demo is available on Steam. Controller required

[jonaz.dk]

Just a friendly tip for getting the Unreal Engine default Mannequin compatible animations exported from Blender.
Out of the box it's normally a huge hassle.

Jim Kroovy has developed some excellent tools for Blender. Even includes an out of the box Mannequin based rig and FBX export module that will export to Unreal without hassle. Absolutely perfect! <3



Pay what you want, but consider a donation if you like the tools
More on:
https://jimkroovy.gumroad.com/

[jonaz.dk]

Woop woop! @emilarsen is back with a relaunch of his scifi co-op board game, Rogue Angels.

This time I think it's highly likely to go through the hard gates of Kickstarter. A lot of time seems to have been spent on prepping the new relaunched campaign. The original campaign was back in February 2022.

The newly down-adjusted goal from 2.6M DKK to now 342,787 DKK. Is a far more realistic goal to reach.

Best of luck with the Kickstarter Emil!

(Update 1): Actually at this rate I would be very surprised if the KS didn't happen.



On Kicktraq:
https://kicktraq.com/projects/suntzugames/rogue-angels/

[jonaz.dk]

Update 1: Just gave the demo a short spin. Didn't wait around to start and actual game as my lobby started out completely empty.. Like I've got things to do than wait around!!
A few players joined while I was there and we could knock each other out with a range of pick up and makeshift weapons.
That was just some basic fun to be had. My general impression that it is actually simple genuinely fun to play. I can certainly see a future for this project. Honestly I was not big on their first Rubber Bandits game, as something just didn't click for me there. But Rubber Royale has great potential! (Obviously spoken only from a very short play session). The feeling is goooood!

Rubber Royale now has a playable demo

[jonaz.dk]

Void Crew from Hutlihut is launching tomorrow! So grats on that very soon! Wooop wooop!
Update: Into Early Access.

I hope it goes smooth and awesomexcellent! Online co-op games is no easy feat to pull off and especially something this complex! So hats off to the team for making it this far. (I know a bunch of them)

Now the big long war begins to keep players engaged while growing the community.

Really curious how it will go! Out of the gates their wishlist numbers looks fairly reasonable! Though not in the big league.
Currently at the #763 spot on the global most wishlisted titles.

And of cause they will be launching RIGHT into the release of Starfield, launching today! I know.. different games. But the global talk and attention is >VERY< much on Starfield. For some reason they (or publishers) picked the scariest timing possible.
Update: Spotted Focus Entertainment is having a publisher week on Steam 7-18 September, so that might have something to do with it.
Still I think a better time could have been picked for the EA launch.

If I was on the team I would be worried beyond belief! (Actually I am already worried on their behalf).
I hope it's not going to be an issue and the game speaks to different different audience. But something as huge as Starfield in the first person sci-fi genre coming out the day before this release cannot be ignored.

All the best for Void Crew! <3

Livestream from yesterday. 3 hours long. Looking good!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1917072027



Updated with latest Early Access trailer

[jonaz.dk]

Free Unreal Engine Marketplace assets for the month


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


Update: Adding the fresh 5.3 release

[emilarsen]

Woop woop! @emilarsen is back with a relaunch of his scifi co-op board game, Rogue Angels.

Thank you so much for bringing it up here, Jonaz I really appreciate it. And of course thank you to anyone who supports the project in any shape or form.
Best regards Emil

[jonaz.dk]

@emilarsen

And now some more news!
After many many midnight moons in development.
Midnight Girl from Italic (DK) is launching 6th of October this year.

[jonaz.dk]

Want to be a playtester for Playdeads next game? Sign up here
https://playdead.com/spiltester/

Honestly I do NOT recommend it.. because you would be spoiling the final experience for yourself.
But that is completely up to you! It is an important job nonetheless that will only make the final game better.
I will personally NOT be signing up. Don't want it spoiled!

[jonaz.dk]

Rythem game 'SKULLBEAT Rhythm PVP'. Co-developed by Chop Chop Games and Kong Orange is now released on Roblox
https://www.roblox.com/games/1029301874 ... Rhythm-PVP

[jonaz.dk]

The yearly Save and Sound game music festival is ongoing.

Day 1 here

[jonaz.dk]

New pricing model coming to Unity. Basically Unity "tax" per runtime install when hitting the threshold... hmmmm.
It even seems to work retroactively. Even releasing a wide spread free demo of a game would cost money.
The reception of this latest Unity move does not seem to have gone well with the community from what I can quickly gather. To no big surprise! It could even be described as a massive public uproar like never seen before.
Unity will surly nudge some percentage of their developer base towards the competition. Not the smartest move!

Another consequence of the runtime install fee. Is that in the worst case, bad actors could potentially perform application install attacks against developers, REALLY hurting them in the process. No one can rest in their sleep using Unity now.
They claim to have preventive measures against this. But all one can do with their counting of installs is 'trust them'. It is a very black box system.

Adding: Wondering if the now almost regular slew of missteps at Unity will ever end? It does not bode well for the future time after time. Sad really!
Once it was a proud moment mentioning Unity originated in Denmark. Still really cool it all started here and super impressive what my company founding and employee friends have achieved with the company and engine in the past.
Truly an inspiring journey! I've been following Unity (Over The Edge Entertainment, back then) ever since the very early days from Gooball and getting a demo of Unity pre-release on Mac in David's apartment. I even did some 3D once they used for marketing purposes in the early days. And did my first game jam project with friends in Unity at the very first Nordic Game Jam in 2006.

But now it seems like a never-ending downward spiral of bad news and miscalculations. Super sad to see!

Technically speaking the whole over inflating investment model of 'the unicorn model' where promising companies with large scalable user bases does not have to think about creating a financial sustainable business in the short term. But rather being pumped up with investor money to inflate the user base and employee numbers to insane numbers to look good on the future stock exchange. One could even go so far as call the whole shebang a damaging pump and dump scheme.
Where in the end the inflated company bill has to be picked up by risk willing public investors once the company hits the IPO. And now later the company has to resort to drastic measures to create a proper cash flow.
I think this is probably the root cause of all this. But I'm far from a financial expert so take it with a grain of salt. Just thoughts from the top of my head.
The direct cause is poor decision making in the top management.

Update: Also the only logical conclusion I can come up with now it that Unity simply have to make a statement and retract or modify their new plan. The backlash is quite extreme. If they don't it's even worse that one can think.

Update: I might suspect that as long as John Riccitiello remains in power at Unity we will see more of this. So in essence Unity cannot be trusted for the foreseeable future. I perfectly understand the situation and implications of the 'unicorn model' that has put the company in it's current situation and need for profitability. But certainly there must be better ways of handling it. Undermining the user base's trust in the company does no good.



Unity plan pricing and packaging updates
Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November.
https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricin ... ng-updates

[jonaz.dk]

The next project from Other Tales Interactive. The developers of 'Tick Tock: A Tale for Two' called Miniatures. (Formerly known as Stories of the north sea)
Not sure how much 'game' is in the project? The project seems to be mostly inspired by visual novels and short film, with some level of interactivity.

'Tick Tock: A Tale for Two' was looking rather successful. But I guess their artsy ways has led them artsy ways and they have chosen to go even more indie. As opposed to focusing on developing more for their local team solving puzzle niche audience they found.

Other Tales Interactive also received DFI funding in 2020 for a musical walking simulator project earlier called Hermit Road. Unknown if that is still a thing in active development?! Guessing it might be on hold/canned.

Best of luck to Mira and Tanja + team with the new project!

[jonaz.dk]

So a bunch of mostly large F2P focused game developers are organizing a boycott of using IronSource and Unity Ads monetization until they review their latest policy change. The very ad service Unity tried to force developers towards.

I have a hunch this will make Unity listen for a change... money talks right into their core business.
Things will happen now! I am sure!
Besides the general massive backlash and even potential lawsuits on the horizion. Something have to give at Unity sooner or later.

Signatures currently include companies:
Azur Games, Voodoo, Homa, Century Games, SayGames, CrazyLabs, Original Games, Ducky, Burny Games, Inspired Square, Geisha Tokyo, tatsumaki games, New Story, Playgendary, Supercent, KAYAC, TapNation, Matchingham Games, Moonee,

Collective letter from game development companies: Turning off all IronSource and Unity Ads monetization until new conditions are reviewed
We are the collective voice of the game development industry—developers, game designers, artists, and business minds. Passionate about our craft, we've invested years in shaping an industry that touches the lives of millions worldwide. As stakeholders, we cannot remain silent when a decision threatens to destabilize this ecosystem.
More on:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16Pz ... spa27vo0l9

Sign here!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... A/viewform


On a note.. and I don't think this is the first time I mention this. But nudge nudge.. wink wink.. I still think it's time for the board at Unity to reconsider who is CEO of the company. >To an absolute minimum<
just a friendly tip that could help the company looking forward, if it is not too late already.
Reading the 'Unity values' rings increasingly hollow.
https://unity.com/our-company

More thoughts: John might just be the most visible man at Unity right now. But the entire management team and the board of directors and their top level investors is likely a giant web of vested interests. Just changing the surface level might change very little in the long run.
I would even go as far as to conclude that at the end of they day, Unity can NEVER be trusted again regardless of CEO.

Adding.. I have zero skin in the game. We are running Unreal here (And tiny bits of Game Maker for fast 2D prototyping even), so completely unaffected of the recent policy change. But for the sake of all the affected developers out there I think it's important to send a strong message to Unity. Management skulls seems thinker than necessary.

Update: This is of cause completely bonkers! Allegedly a threat from a Unity employee. Possibly faked!?.. hard to know exactly. But let's hope we don't see more of this in any capacity.
Video-Game Company Unity Closes Offices Following Death Threat
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... first-time

[jonaz.dk]

>Only today<
Kenney Game Assets All-in-1 if free!
Spanning some 40.000 assets.

Grab it here!
https://kenney.itch.io/kenney-game-assets

[jonaz.dk]

Imagine if:
- Unity just decided to charge a percentage of earnings over a certain threshold.
- Kept the Plus tier
- No retroactive BS
- No Terms of Service shenanigans
- No "magic blackbox" guessing and charging a skewed install fee, hitting some developers more than others to an unpredictable degree.
- No "blackmailing" to get devs to sign up for specific Unity services.

Sure people never like getting charged more.

But this enormous mass-exodus of Unity devs to other platforms, like especially Godot and to a lesser degree Unreal Engine. And permanent loss of trust in the community.

> Could have been entirely prevented <

Now their company faces REALLY deep challenges and is tainted beyond repair.

'Could' even (worst case) be a deathblow if something is not done quickly. Remember Unity is in a sensitive financial situation with decades of accumulated debt. Investors will be hesitant to throw more money their way following the uproar and outlook.

I am sure they will address the misstep soon. I think it's mostly a question of time and to what extent. We will see!

Would be sad with less competition in the game engine space.
Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

[jonaz.dk]

And yeah... 'something' is in the pipe at Unity.

Seems like a rather lukewarm reception in the comments. Trust is clearly broken.
What it actually will amount to is a different question, we will see!



**Adding: The only >true fix< I see for Unity is to transition to a FOSS (Free Open Source Software) model like Eg. Blender Foundation or Godot.
Not that it has a chance of happening.
Maaaaaybe (extremely theoretically) if everything crashes and burns and somebody with very good intentions buys Unity for cheap and completely restructures the company from the ground up. But don't count on it... like at all!

[jonaz.dk]

Kind of Art

Creative industry conference
2023 COPENHAGEN
27-28 OCTOBER

https://www.kind-art.com/

Tickets are 1500 DKK a pop. 500 DKK for students.

[jonaz.dk]

Two games is free on the Epic store this week. On is (DK) Jazzy puzzle game 'The Forest Quartet' from Mads and Friends published by Bedtime.

Grab it here
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/for ... tet-5d03e3

Trailer


Out of Line is also free for the time.
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/out-of-line-209cbb

[jonaz.dk]

Unity responds
https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee

Oh yeah they seemed like they got the message this time and it is certainly a step in the right direction

But fundamentally, nothing has changed. Count down to next blunder has started.

[jonaz.dk]

Mood and Ghost Ship just the latest boardgame expansion for DRG.
To little surprise the Kickstarter was almost instantly funded.

Big grats!

[jonaz.dk]

Double demo day! From Funday games.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Don't Die In The West have released demos today.

DRG Survivor is very much expected to really take it home launching. Currently at spot number 70 most wishlisted game on Steam. There is no stopping the dwarves!

[jonaz.dk]

So after around 7'ish? years in development. Today is COCOON launch day! (8 hours from writing!)
Developed by DK Geometric Interactive. A handful of former Playdead guys on the team also.

(Yeah this is @JeppeCarlsen wanting to do faster development cycles after working on Limbo and INSIDE as lead designer) Well... didn't go so well there Jeppe.

But good things takes it time!

Curretly a 89 score on metacritic.

Also Jeppe posted about the review reception: (It's looking goooood!)
-Polygon "Cocoon is impossibly good"
-Eurogamer 10/10
-GamesRadar 10/10
-GameReactor 10/10
-Easy Allies 9/10
-IGN 9/10
-IGN India 9/10
-Press Start 9/10
-God is a Geek 9/10
-Push Square 9/10
-Game Informer 8.75/10

I am also expecting quite the hit game, currently a #287 spot on the global Steam wishlist.
The new Limbo?.. don't know. But it will do really well!

BIIIIG grats to Jeppe and team! Sooo amazingly done!
Hope I find some time to play it soon.

Game looks amaze!

[jonaz.dk]

And yet another DK demo is landing today on Steam!

SpellRogue from Guidelight Games!