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[jonaz.dk]

First 7 minutes of the new Mortal Kombat movie available on HBO Max

[jonaz.dk]

Accelerate invests in DK indie game studio Digital Devotion Games
Nice! Grats to the team!


Accelerate press blurp
https://www.accelerace.io/news/accelera ... ion-games/

[jonaz.dk]

Mind Scanners from The Outer Zone (DK ) now features a playable demo on their steam page. I'll give it a spin when I find some time.
And a release date of May 20 2021.

[jonaz.dk]

Also Fireworks Mania from developer Laumania Aps is now 4 months old and quite the success! With estimated 20.000-50.000 units sold. >Roughly< estimating it translates to 2 - 2.4M DKK after the Steam cut of the usual high 30% and before taxes in the upper end of the unit estimate. VERY! good for 2 years of spare time development.
Grats to Laumania! Living the indie developer dream.

[jonaz.dk]

A lengthy look at MetaHuman.. including facial mocap and body mocap setup.


Also avaiable in early access
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/digital-humans

[jonaz.dk]

Copenhagen Matchup starting tomorrow.. pitch your game! Get monies!
April 28th 09:00 - 21:00 CET

Online version
https://copenhagenmatchup.dk/

[jonaz.dk]

Den danske computerspilvirksomhed Trophy Games opkøber den danske spilproducent Xombat Development.
https://www.euroinvestor.dk/nyheder/for ... virksomhed

Nyt redaktionsmedlem på Spilordningen
Spilordningen har fået et nyt eksternt redaktionsmedlem. I den kommende ansøgningsrunde vil Peter Holm sidde som det ene af de to eksterne medlemmer af redaktionen, idet han afløser Jesper Krogh Kristansen.
https://dfi.peytzmail.com/v/yboujz/gsxq ... 89194/send

[jonaz.dk]

Logic Artists (DK) has announced the next installment in the Expeditions series. Now fully owned by THQ Nordic if I recall correctly.

Worked for them a while ago back in 2016 on an unannouced title that will never see the light of day (not to their fault). And a tiny tiny tiny bit on Expeditions: Viking.

Happy to see they are doing good again after they had some hard times.

Grats guys! And best of luck with the game. Yay!

Expeditions: Rome



Announcement Trailer


Gameplay Trailer


More on
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/expedi ... me-preview

[jonaz.dk]

Fly Together from North Play (DK) is now launched on Switch. Grats on the release!

Gameplay vid


https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/f ... er-switch/

[jonaz.dk]

And Quixel Mixer 2021.1 is out!

Totally going to texture my latest sculpts in this. It's not quite at the level of Substance Painter just yet in raw functionality. But over time the gap will become smaller and smaller it seems.
And Quixel Mixer is wonderfully free for all!!.. sooo.. Adobe will have some challenges coming their way.



Download Quixel Mixer 2021.1 (and future versions obviously) for free right here
https://quixel.com/mixer

[jonaz.dk]

So in the realm of more or less speculation there are rumors floating out there that IO Interactive is in early development of a new IP revolving around a large fantasy RPG styled game with dragons! Codename Project: Dragon. And they have signed the project with XBOX. Seems to back up some of my previous posts regarding IOI speculation. Nice with some more details emerging.

So the new project has some indications of (Nothing is of cause 100% verified)
- Fantasy RPG with dragons and stuff!
- A large online game
- IO Interactive Malmö is the lead studio on the project.
- Signed with XBOX (possible exclusive!)
- In early development.. guessing they at least have a vertical slice that was good enough to sign with XBOX.

So that's pretty darn cool!
Looking forward to seeing if this is the case... but it will be years out before it will see the light of day. If it survives until then. Hopefully it does and it will be awesome!

So more speculation can spring from this info.. this is purely meta speculation! With a VERY low accuracy! Based purely only on my own imagination.
One could ask what kind of game world they would be creating. Would it be the 'usual' high or low medieval fantasy setting. Or something new and fresh?!
And what would the gameplay be like.. could it be "Grand Theft Dragon" where you could jump mid air to land on a dragon to battle the rider in-flight PVP and take over the other dragon?!
Could it have large scale battles where you would swooping down and slashing armies with dragon fire and impact. Grabbing hold of squads of enemies, bombs, debris, catapults, horses and carriages and dropping them from a height. Perhaps to clear a way for the attacking army.
Could there be dragon taming? Finding/capturing dragon eggs for hatching and trading various types of dragons.
Really nice dragon IK animation that can procedurally climb uneven terrain and fortresses when not flying.
Oh yeah.. and feeding mechanics. The dragon should feed from time to time. On anything living.. other players, sheep, horses and the unfortunate peasant NPC.
Dragons should be upgradeable with armor plating etc.
It should be possible to fit a party of players/bots on top of a dragon. Eg. healers and ranged units. Could be like flying in a team of spec ops to complete a mission.
Also enemy armies should pose a certain threat to dragons with ranged units like (mobile) ballistas and archers.
That's probably some of the things I would do with a dragon game at least. Given the (ample) resources required.

- Small update: Something that would also make a lot of sense in a world with flyable dragons is... Floating castles! to really give the extra dimension of height and flying some meaning. Could also include very large flying creatures in the vein of Shadow of the Colossus. Perhaps even with structures and castles on their backs.

Hmmm so many questions and cool possibilities

Sources:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021 ... p-for-xbox
https://www.windowscentral.com/io-inter ... antasy-rpg

[jonaz.dk]

A tech look at that little sexy Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart trailer... looks sooo nice!

[jonaz.dk]

Why Do So Many Games Have Tanks, Healers and DPS?

[jonaz.dk]

This years Nordic Game Jam 2021 submissions.

"The participants will now be voting until Sunday at 18:00 next week where awards will be given out"
https://itch.io/jam/nordic-game-jam-2021/entries

[jonaz.dk]

Animation Bootcamp: God of War: Breathing New Life into a Hardened Spartan

[jonaz.dk]

So finally got around to play Vane last night from the Swedish indiedevs with a AAA background, Friend & Foe Games.
Haven't played many games lately.. busy with my own project in my rare spare time. So this was a nice break for a change. And I was able to finish it in one sitting. So that's perfect for me. And actually finishing a game I start speaks for itself.

But I'd just like to give it my fullest tentative dependency recommendation!

Even given the mixed reviews from players and press I did enjoy my time with it. And the sales on steam looks like a big dud for them. They never got around to fix the issues people mention. It could have helped them a lot to go back and redesign and fix things mentioned in the reviews. But I recon having a labor of love being shredded by reviewers and players could very much take a heavy toll on team motivation. It's sad because it's a talented visionary team. :/

It certainly has is shares of issues with the camera, controls and some pacing issues in the later part of the game where it did begin to feel a pretty tedious pushing a big ball around in large open environments. But if you can look beyond some issues it's really a highly unique and beautiful experience.

It is not about stats, progression, enemies, combat and loot drops. But clearly an atmospheric exploration game akin to a Journey with light puzzle elements.
it's a game designed by veteran artists and it clearly shows. They could probably have needed some design help.

Also the game's story is done purely through environmental and visual story telling. There are no spoken or written words to guide the player. So it's a strange tale that is open to interpretation. So you have to look and interpret your way though the game's world.

So if you are into getting sucked into a strange unique world with some kinks. You could give it a spin. (maybe on sale and stuff)

[jonaz.dk]

A first look at (DK) Trophy Game's Warhammer licensed game.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Arena
Described as a multiplayer auto battler. Made for mobile and Steam.

Most certainly aimed at a more casual audience. Will be interesting how the more hardcore Warhammer audience will receive this. It is certainly a risky move wandering into a more casual look.
Personally I actually kind of like the cutesy-mobile spin on the visuals.. I'm also not hardcore Warhammer guy.
Others will probably find it absolute heresy.

''Adding...also on the gameplay/monetization side of things. They don't talk about it in the public available material but I fully expect it to be a F2P game with pay to win mechanics and a bit of a grind fest. But let see! That is just my gut feeling. Trophy Games is very much a commercial driven enterprise and they are good at that. So I would be not be surprised.

More on
https://soularena.gg

[jonaz.dk]

Level Designer Breaks Down Ori's Awesome Sand Level

[jonaz.dk]

How Insomniac Games uses Unity ArtEngine for ai-assisted creation | GDC Showcase 2021

[jonaz.dk]

A bit of Spilbar coming up
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spilbar-46 ... 4220598963

Games as a Business 2021
https://techsavvy.media/games-as-a-business-2021/

Dansk spilindustri rider på ny bølge af succes. Kan det denne gang føre til international styrkeposition?
https://techsavvy.media/dansk-spilindus ... af-succes/

Video Game Industry Statistics, Trends and Data In 2021
https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/

[jonaz.dk]

(Almost over engineered) web based UV checker map generator.
http://uvchecker.byvalle.com/


And Texture Ripper
https://www.blendersecrets.org/secrets/texture-ripper

[jonaz.dk]

A Kickstarter from AwesomeBlade Software (solo with some hired help) based in Aalborg.

The project 8-bit Apocalype.

Really sorry to be Mr Boogeyman with nay-saying reality glasses on.. but I would be >extraordinarily< surprised if the project met the goal.
In that range of 400.000 DKK the project would have to be quite out of the ordinary to stand a chance with crowd funding.
That said I'm sure it's a realistic DK budget to take the time off exclusively and work on the game with some outside help.

Try again with a tenth of that goal and it 'might' be realistic to meet.
And demo.. always demo!

** Adding also this exemplifies the inherent nasty catch 22 in crowd funding.
- Aim low and you might stand a chance to get funded. But not really do that much with a tiny bit of money you get. 'only hope it goes way over target. And continually work on getting more money through other means. Risking angry backers if the project doesn't go anywhere regardless of a low funded goal.

- Aim high and run of the risk of getting nothing, Besides the important learning experience and some exposure for your project. And the information to do a better job the next time.

At the fundamental level successful crowd funding requires one hell of a product people would want. And one hell of a PR campaign and community building well in advance optimally. And is a healthy dose of reality pill to swallow to test if your game is something that people actually want or not. And your skill as a company or individual in promoting such game.
I'd say it's a great idea to go for actually! So either reality will smack you hard in the face and you are hopefully able to change course and do better. Or get confirmation and support that you really have something people want.

Not pessimistic about the game per se just the campaign goal. Could need a little something on the visual tastiness. But might be fun retro styled gameplay. A genre I enjoy from time to time.

Good luck with the project regardless of my old man grumbling!

[jonaz.dk]

And a launch trailer for The Outer Zone's MIND SCANNERS launching Thursday the 20th of May.





Played the demo a bit. And it is quite a unique game like only Malte could make.
Did ran into some game breaking bugs. But I can only assume they have been fixed for the launch.
A bit comparative to indie-darling Papers Please. But also very much it's own thing and should not be direclty compared. Maybe not really a game that fit's my personal taste to perfection based on the demo. But it seems it has already attracted a passionate niche audience judging on comments AND it is currently featured as number 4 on Steam popular upcoming list! So that's super great!

Best of luck with the launch!

[jonaz.dk]

The story (in Swedish) of how the demo group Triton became Starbreeze.
Also Starbreeze should be getting back into shape after some rough years.

A few of the old timer Danes from the demoscene/gamedevscene are mentioned. Mikael Balle, Søren Hannibal, Michael Saxs Persson, Jesper Kyd, Jacob Andersen and Martin Pollas. Some of them went on to found IO Interactive and Reto-Moto. So a lot of cross pollination was also happening back then.

And includes a story of how John Carmack was almost pressing his nose against the monitor to study they E3 demo of Into the Shadows. And it likely changed what Quake later became.

De har ögonen tre centimeter från skärmen och försöker räkna pixlar. Jens Schmidt känner igen dem, det är Jay Wilbur och John Carmack från id Software som ligger bakom Doom. De är imponerade över vad Triton åstadkommit med Into the Shadows och bjuder in dem att få se Quake bakom stängda dörrar.

Triton also had a very direct impact on my music making when they released Fast Tracker 2. Spent sooo much time in that program back in the days.
I was also blown away and still waiting for that Into the Shadows release.

Story here:

https://martinlindell.com/2019/07/23/tr ... tarbreeze/

[jonaz.dk]

DK nerds taking it to the next level.

Kurt har bygget en F-16-flysimulator


Peter har bygget sit hus om til en ridderborg