GMTK Digest - July 2024 (Patreon)

Hey there! Welcome to the GMTK Digest for July 2024.

This one might be a little... light. And that's for two reasons. One is that I've been working almost non stop on getting Mind Over Magnet finished, leaving little time for other games. And two is that it's the summer! It's the dry season for games!

Still, I've dug up some new releases, some headlines, and some must-watch videos. So get out the hammock and enjoy.

New Releases

Zenless Zone Zero

A new free-to-play game from the Genshin Impact people. So expect stylish anime combat, and a whole of stuff to collect (or buy). PC Gamer calls it "a shallow, polished front for a relentless online store."

Anger Foot

Devolver's latest output has been described as Hotline Miami in first-person: a messy, bloody, comedic game about kicking down doors and blasting fools. Game Informer says "Thwarting foes milliseconds before they pull the trigger, either by brute force or cleverly utilising my surroundings, never ceased to feel cool".

Flock

A chill co-op game about the joy of flight - perhaps closer to a demo scene tech showcase than an actual game. But supposed to be super cozy and delightful.

Slider

I'm biased on this one: the world-shifting puzzle game Slider was first made for the GMTK Game Jam in 2021. Now it's got a full (free!) release on Steam. The game's all about rearranging the world map to solve puzzles and navigate to new areas.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

Speaking of shifting the world: Arranger is a game about moving tiles underfoot. The game's expressive artwork comes from the artist behind Braid, and the story is from Eggplant's Nick Suttner. I've played like 20 minutes of it and it was cool!

Also this month - two games I keep getting confused: the pixel art Metroidvania Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn and the Soulslike Gestalt: Steam & Cinder. Or is that the other way around? There's also the shadow-hopping platformer Schim and the ambitious fan mod Fallout: London.

Headlines

Indie Game Publisher Humble Games Reportedly Lays Off All Staff - The layoffs show no sign of slowing down. This time reports say Humble Games has gone - the publisher put out Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus mere days ago.

Bethesda Game Studios workers have unionized and World of Warcraft developers form wall-to-wall union at Blizzard Entertainment - I think we're going to see headlines like this more and more as time goes on. As the video game biz becomes more perilous, unions are a way to protect jobs, fight crunch, and avoid AI.

Nintendo won't use generative AI in its first-party games - In a Q&A with investors, Nintendo prez Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledges that generative AI has serious legal issues and so will stick to making games the ol' fashioned way.

Xbox Game Pass is getting major changes - Xbox Game Pass members will no longer get blockbuster games like Forza and Halo with their subscription unless they pay for a higher tier. Existing members are grandfathered in, while their subscription lasts.

I will never charge money for a DLC or update for as long as I live - That's Stardew Valley dev ConcernedApe. Seeing as the base game has sold over 30 million copies, I think the developer will be okay.

Reading List

Design

[Read] Overwatch 2 Is Trapped In A Crisis Of Its Own Making - "By the end of the nearly 4,000-word blog post, it’s clear that the team is still struggling to define Overwatch 2".

[Watch | CC | 24 mins] The Puny Paradox - "One thing that has always perplexed me is damage values in video games. Sometimes they’re single digit, sometimes they’re in the millions."

[Watch | CC | 10 mins] A Postmortem on Starstruck Vagabond - Yahtzee looks back at the development of his biggest game yet.

[Read] Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's progression issues could do with a bit of Nintendo magic - "The Elden Ring DLC has a problem with progression. And it's a problem some inspiration from Nintendo could solve. After all, Elden Ring is just Breath of the Wild - Dark Souls, right?"

[Read] How Breath of the Wild led to playable Zelda - "I think we can trace a direct line from a design philosophy called “multiplicative design”, first seen in Breath of the Wild, to a playable Zelda."

[Watch | 27 mins] Why Pausing in Elden Ring / Dark Souls Would Be Fine - FromSoft can't put a pause button in Elden Ring because it would break the always-online feature. Right? This YouTube video begs to differ.

Business

[Read] ‘Death Occurs in the Dark’: Indie Video Game Devs Are Struggling to Survive - "With fewer smaller, creative teams to make experimental games, players will have fewer choices—or chances—to find games that speak to them or surprise them."

[Watch | CC | 15 mins] The Unlikely Return of the Video Game Demo - "Are demos a relic of the past or a necessary component in making future hits "stand out"?"

[Read] Why are Japanese developers not undergoing mass layoffs? - "We look at the reasons why Japan has otherwise been sheltered (but not immune) to many of the layoffs and trends seen further afield".

Culture

[Read] Totally wired: Why are so many young people addicted to video games? - The Guardian explores "how the compulsive games can be impossible to resist – and meets the experts tackling the issue" - meanwhile, the paper's games writers offer a rebuttal.

[Listen | 44 mins] Episode 21: Grant Stoner - People Make Games talks to Accessibility & Disability Reporter Stoner - important question answered: whats the difference between the two?

Critique

[Read] Metroid Prime has been making gamers love reading since 2002 - "Nintendo's book smart bounty hunter proves that showing is better than telling"

[Watch | CC | 30 mins] The Games Saving 3D Platforming - The platforming genre's future "lies in a fundamental design shift representing freedom, creativity, and mastery".

Artistry

[Read] Sound Is The Key To Remaking This All-Time Classic - "The remake of the 1997 sequel to the seminal puzzle game Myst is a masterclass in how creating an ambient soundscape can help flesh out the world of the game".

[Watch | CC | 4 mins] How "In-Engine" Game Trailers Are Made - What does "in-engine" mean at the bottom of a video game trailer? Derek explains.

[Read] Making Hyper Light Breaker's fizzy 80s anime character designs - "Heart Machine's John DeRiggi reveals a love of "retro vibes" and why less is more in game art."

[Watch | 18 mins] I Tried Turning Games Into Text - "ASCII art has been a staple of the internet since its inception -- but today I'm wondering if we could make a shader that turns games into ASCII art, and if we can, would it even look good?"

History

[Watch | CC | 27 mins] The 3D revolution in 90s game development - "A new revolution was ready to take the video game industry by storm. Transforming video game graphics from Pixels to Polygons."

[Watch | CC | 28 mins] Modern Warfare: How Call of Duty 4 Changed a Genre Forever - Ahoy charts the development of the Call of Duty franchise, from its first WW2 game to its blockbuster modern reinvention.

Beyond Games

[Watch | 35 mins] How Sports Movies Are Made Possible - How do you make a massive crowd scene for a movie: CGI, or blow-up dolls?