Posts tagged “GDC 2018”

Welcome to Soundbyte, an audio mini-series that stimulates your ears and explores topics in the games industry. In our first episode, Pixel Picketers, we're talking about unionisation in the games industry, what some folks are doing to make it happen, and the challenges they face. Let's start by speaking to Doug Cockle, who plays Geralt in The Witcher among other roles, about his negative experiences in…

Tagged with Game Workers Unite, GDC 2018, Motion Twin, Pixel Pushers 512, Podcast, Soundbyte, unions, Dead Cells, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, voice actors.

Chris Hecker has been working on SpyParty for almost a decade now and I get the impression he'd be happy perfecting it for the rest of his career. Some developers want to move from one project to the next, an internal clock ticking down and reminding them how few ideas can be realised in a lifetime, while others are better suited to exploring one design…

Tagged with Chris Hecker, feature, GDC 2018, go, John Cimino, chess, SpyParty.

The awards ceremony at this year’s GDC was fun. At least, that’s what John told me from his seat in the crowd, where he saw the winners mount a stage some would consider too colourful for this planet. The Independent Games Festival Awards and subsequent Game Developer’s Choice Awards saw a range of trophy-grabbers, from indie students to adventure game veterans. Unfortunately for them, I…

Tagged with Amanita Design, Bennett Foddy, Buried Signal, GDC 2018, Giant Sparrow, IGF 2018, IGF Awards, Matt Makes Games, Rami Ismail, Studio MDHR, SUPERHOT Team, Celeste, Chuchel, Cuphead, Getting Over It, Gorogoa, SUPERHOT VR, What Remains of Edith Finch.

♪♫ When you go to San Fraaaanciscooo, be sure to wear a lanyard with ‘Media’ inscribed on it round youuur nnnneck ♪♫ That’s what Adam, John and Brendan sang to each other as they gleefully skipped through the streets of California’s tram-infested hill city. The crew were in town for the yearly Game Developer's Conference where they spoke to developers, played games, and gambled on…

Tagged with Chris Hecker, Devolver, feature, GDC 2018, IGF 2018, IGF Awards, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Ubisoft, Baba Is You, Far Cry 5, Night in the Woods, SpyParty, Tacoma.

The blessed boys and girls of Valve were showing off some VR games for the upcoming Vive Pro at the Game Developers Conference last week. They were encamped near the press room in a large chamber split up into little shacks, each running a game such as the robot-avoiding comedy stealth of Budget Cuts, or the sunbathing relaxation of Vacation Simulator. I went on a…

Tagged with Creed: Rise To Glory, feature, GDC 2018, Hall of the Machine King, Mi Hiepa Sports, Museum of Other Realities, Neat Corporation, Owlchemy Labs, Stress Level Zero, Survios, Valve, VR, Budget Cuts, HTC Vive Pro, Vacation Simulator.

Noita is how Spelunky looks in my dreams. It's a game in which the world is simulated down to each individual pixel, so that liquids drip, flow, splash and stain. You're tasked with travelling ever downward through a series of caverns, collecting new magical weapons and slaying beasties. That wasn't always the case though. As I learned when I sat down with the developers at…

Tagged with feature, GDC 2018, Nolla Games, preview, Noita.

“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Steve Kaplan was in GDC to take part in a roundtable discussion about the pros and cons of unionisation in the games industry. He works in the entertainment industry and had travelled from Los Angeles, where he organises unions for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, to be the union rep in the room…

Tagged with feature, Game Workers Unite, GDC 2018, igda, unions, GDC.

“That’s the Ancient word for ‘writer’,” says Jon Ingold, pointing to some indecipherable symbols on his business card. “What it breaks down to is ‘Person-who-speaks-without-speaking.’” Ingold is the writer for Heaven’s Vault, an upcoming sci-fi adventure from Inkle (the folks behind 80 Days and Sorcery!) You play an archaeologist investigating the remains of an ancient civilisation in an otherworldly “Nebula”. He and some others from…

Tagged with feature, GDC 2018, hands on, Inkle Studios, GDC, Heaven's Vault.

A man in black scrambles through the overgrowth, looking lost. So I shoot him. Puffs of bloody air erupt from his body, but he runs on. Behind him something explodes from a stray bullet – my bulet or somebody else’s? I don’t know. But the man in black keeps moving, dodging behind some trees, over a ridge. Behind me, a wall of wobbly energy closes…

Tagged with Automaton, feature, GDC 2018, hands on, Improbable, GDC, Mavericks: Proving Grounds.

Into the Breach is one of the most perfect games I’ve ever played. It’s tactical warfare with every sliver of fat trimmed away and I’d put it up there with Chess and Invisible, Inc. in the pantheon of turn-based games. Bad North will not be entering that pantheon. Not because it doesn’t seem capable of reaching lofty heights – it absolutely does – but because…

Tagged with feature, GDC 2018, Plausible Concept, Raw Fury, Bad North, GDC.