What to read on the weekend. Digest news of the gaming industry

Hi, Habr!

I present to you a small selection of news from the world of gamedev, which were discovered on the Internet in late April-early May.



Mobile direction
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9 things that are worth paying attention to those who publishes a mobile application.
The site App2Top talked about the best applications of April, according to Apple.
5 trends and tricks related to "hard currency" in mobile free-to-play games - an article related to the marketing of mobile games by Wolfgang Graebner.
iOS SDK and updated for iOS7 and Xcode5 Scratch . At the same resource, you can read a series of articles on development for iOs .
Den Stiver, a developer with 15 years of experience, presented the article “Testing on Android: What are the options?” .
Logan Merrick, strategic director of Buzinga, spoke about the four rules for developing an exciting mobile game .
Robert Workman tried to figure out why mobile game prequels are less popular than their predecessors .
Game designer and marketer Steve Peterson (who worked at EA, Capcom, etc.) tried to uncover the myths around the brands of mobile games .
New service for mobile GameLoop is a social platform focused on gamers, created for game recommendations .
The company App Annie, which works in the field of mobile analytics, announced two new products, including free optimization and advertising statistics for developers .
Portal insidesocialgames.com published an analytical article “What does it mean to be a mobile gamer?” In the form of questions and answers.

Social direction

Facebook posted the top 25 apps of May .
But Google+ is not so good: there are rumors that the social network will change the format .

Sound

Popular English-language resource Gamedev.net published an article Creating music for video games: the choice of key and rhythm . The material will be useful not only for game composers, but also for “music customers”.
At Gamedevelopment tutplus , an article about sound also appeared, only this time it was about 3D audio: “Understanding and implementing 3D audio in Gamemaker: Studio” .

Graphics

Joey Fluderack’s “Let There Be Shadows!” Article will tell you how to create shadows in Unity without using a surface shader.
Zenva Gamedev Academy continues to teach HTML5 game creation - “How to create a landscape with an artificial island using BabylonJS .
Martin Prantl published the first part of a series of articles that will tell you how to create a simple GUI for small games .
Eurogamer.net published an extensive and interesting material on the creation of an authentic and interesting melee combat system in games .
Sundog has released version 2.83 of the water effects library Triton Ocean SDK . The new version produced a huge optimization of the already fast system.

Programming

A leading game programmer for NextGames has written a great deal about prototyping and code quality .
Douglas MacLeod has published extensive material on character animation in DirectX.

Other

An interesting article appeared on the Gamingpoint blog about how psychology can help create a certain atmosphere in the game .
The author of the Gamedev.net portal, Dave Mitchell, shared tips on how to prepare the game for the exhibition , drawing on the experience of participating in EGX Rezzed 2014 .
Ninga Metrics has announced a new client for Katana Social Analytics Engine , thanks to which developers can identify the most influential and valuable users.
Sergey Klimov in his blog shared his thoughts about business relations in the gaming industry , as well as why it is worth investing in the work of the soul .
Tony Coles at eurogamer.net has published an amusing article “Retrospective: Solitaire Solitaire. The first "bagel"? " .
You can already read the May issue of The Indie game magazine .
Also for online reading and downloading is available on the 29th issue of the journal FPS .
Kirk Hamilton reviewed the new PS Vita and compared it with the device of the previous generation. And Luc Plunket admitted that he would give $ 500 for a great Nintendo with an aluminum case .
Mark Serrels in his article tried to figure out why we continue to play complex games .

What to see

Indie Approach to Procedural Animation , by David Rosen from Wolfire Games at GDC 2014.
“How to increase revenue and value of a product” - Imran Khan's report from Nexage at the Winter Nights 2014 conference.
The author of the HobbyGamedev blog, Chris DeLeon, described payment models and tastes in game design .
On the Unknown Worlds Youtube channel, you can watch a series of micro-reports on game development.

What to listen to

Sergey Galyonkin podcast "Changes in the mobile market, ethics of f2p and HR in the gaming industry . "
In the GiantBomb podcast you can listen to Super Time Force, Sunset Overdrive, how to release the game, Eurovision and much more.
The fourth release of the podcast IGN Russia will tell about the plot in games, the set-top box of Fire TV from Amazon, will touch on the topic Free-to-play vs. AAA and the future of Star Wars.
In the "Podcast about the game" from the former participants of the project "Hell Kitchen" discuss: the end of the story with King, a list of all the games ever created by mankind, the future of multiplatform games and disgustingly review The Elder Scrolls Online.

Important news you might miss

Ukrainian developers can now independently sell Android games on Google Play .
The Higher School of Economics has launched a retraining program "Management of online gaming projects . " According to information published on the site , “the program is recommended for novice game designers, studio managers, those who are only planning to open their own company and work in the gaming industry.”
GarageGames officially released the updated Torque 2D game engine version 3.0 .
The skeleton fell out of the closet: last week, they dug up a batch of old ATARI cartridges with failed games. Full story in English - on eurogamer.net .
Nintendo patents a portable console with replaceable buttons .
David Cole, owner of DFC Intelligence, told PCR in an interview that games for the PC platform are more profitable than games for consoles. On nvworld.ru, you can read David’s abbreviated interview in Russian .
Microsoft consoles will try their luck in the Chinese market . Many doubt that the new gaming platform will be popular among the Chinese, for many years accustomed to mobile and PC games. The failure of the Xbox One prophesies and Amariken McGee , who has worked in China for many years.
Recently, Valve seized the game Earth: 2066 from Steam for disgusting quality and dishonest marketing.
Film Studio Lionsgate opens the gaming unit , and co-founder Zynga - mobile development studio . At the same time, Game Insight closed an office in San Francisco , where only 8 employees worked, Infinity Ward absorbs Neversoft .
Last week, the conflict between Oculus and ZeniMax was widely publicized.
Indie developers have launched a new developer forum where you can get feedback on your work. At the same time, knowing the nature of the industry, the forum is rigidly moderated for insults .
The company Epic Games introduced the general release of the advanced gaming 3D-engine Unreal Engine version 4.1.
Nintendo President Satoru Nivata prepared a system of actions aimed at improving the prospects for the company .

Some kind of professional humor

Permaband is a music band whose members are also EVE Online developers. Their first clip “Killing is just a means” is recommended for viewing.
Nintendo on Twitter launched an interesting hashtag #pokemonbooktitles , offering readers to dream up on the topic "What would happen if famous books were written about pokemon".
The developers of Goat Simulator told the dark story of the main character of the game .

Several weeks on Habré

Epic invite players and developers to create the Unreal tournament.
A virtual museum dedicated to Mario Bros. has opened.
Article on the monetization of gaming applications: part 1 , part 2 .
And here - an article about the monetization of mobile games.
Excellent post about back-engineering Caesar III.
Several articles about Valve: here about eSports , here about Steam workshop .

Events in May:

From 12 to 17 May, NAD Elite 2014 will be held in Montreal, where eminent developers will hold master classes and talk about achievements in the industry.
InterGame 2014 (May 14-15, Tallinn) - a conference on mobile and social games.
In London, from May 14 to 15, Game monetisation Europe took place.
May 14-16 - GRAND conference dedicated to graphics, animation and new media.
May 15-16, Devgamm-2014 is held .
Casual Connect 2014 will be held in Singapore from 20 to 22 May.
On May 21-23, 2014, the event Nordic Games Conference for developers from the northern part of Europe will take place in the city of Malmö (Sweden).
May 19 is the fifth international application development forum, Apps4all .
The international mobile conference #MBLT will be held on May 23 in Moscow.
May 19-20 in London will host a game conference loud gaming Europe
May 23-24 in Korea - Serious games conference .
DevCon 2014 will be held in the Moscow region on May 28-29 .
Gotland Game Conference is scheduled for May 29-30. The conference will be held in Switzerland.

I would be very grateful if in the comments you write headings and directions that would be interesting for you, as well as indicate useful resources where you can search for valuable information.