What to read at your leisure. Gaming Industry News Digest for June

Today in the digest, we recall that a significant event occurred in the game dev world for the first summer month.




Mobile direction:
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Developer Dmitry Greshko told how to create a simple game in 2 months .
Senior game designer and producer Raul Alyaga analyzed the development of a free-to-play game .
The site Mobiledevmemo.com published the article “The Benefits of Low Conversions to Freemium” , as well as extensive material from analysts of Direct Agents “Mobile SEO: Optimization in the AppStore” .
Mobile analytics, Localytics, has published an encouraging report on its research. As it turned out, compared with the data of 2011, the percentage of applications that were open only once after loading decreased from 26 to 20%.
June 20, Unity Technologies announced the release of Unity for PlayStation Mobile.
To exclude those applications that were updated from the Best New Games category, Apple introduced a new category on the App Store - Best New Updates.
After 4 years, the turnover of gaming software will exceed $ 100 billion. According to analytical company DFC Intelligence, almost a third of this amount will be due to the mobile segment .

Sound

Composer Vincent Diamante explained how important sound design is for the game.
While working on the game Panoramic, composer David Kanaga wondered why music software could not become a game .

Graphics

Radek Kontsevich, CEO / Creative Lead at Incubator Games talked about creating characters for the game “Feeding Time” in the “three in a row” genre.
The blog http://in2gpu.com can find material on the contour lighting of objects and many other useful articles.
And on the gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com portal published extensive material about bone animation in Unity 2D. With the sequel.
An updated article, “Vector of Objects vs. Vector of Pointers,” appeared in the code and graphics blog .

Programming

In his article, Lior Tal made a detailed overview of some of the components of the Unity Test Tools , which allow developers to create automated tests directly in the Unity editor.
Nikolay Dyankov gave some practical advice on how to teach mobs in RPG / RTS games to find the right way to their goals and avoid collisions with objects. In general, turn them into a herd of dangerous monsters, not cows. And Christopher Wellonns described the advantages and disadvantages of the GPU approach to finding a path.
In the article “Flexible Particle System: Container,” Bartholomew Filipek talked about how to create a particle container that could be easily and quickly expanded. In addition, it provides links to a number of useful materials on the theory and practice of graphics programming.
Carsten Germer wrote about the experience of creating soft gameplay in the MusiGuess project using direct caching of JSON / JSONP and Nginx.
Niklas Frickholm, in the article “What's in Your Name?”, Reflects on how resources should refer to other resources: via a path, a GUID, or a “name”.

Video

The article "How to create video for games" will tell you what to choose: teaser, in-game video or gameplay video? Kirill Klyushkin from Alconost company told how and why to create trailers for the games.
Indie developer Richard Yates talked about how to create a trailer for an indie game without spending a penny.
Kevin Harwood shared marketing secrets with the public . Need more videoblogger!

It is interesting

Sagger Hrayshi from Sanctuary Game Studios wrote an article in which he tells how and why to create a financial model for a gaming company. Five years in 3 years!
Thomas Grip, creative director of Frictional Games, spoke about a four-layer narrative approach to game design.
Indie developer Dan Stubbs spoke about the dynamics of the narrative in his project The hit.
About what microtransactions are and why they are needed, you can read in Kevin Harwood's article “The Evolution of Microtransactions.”
On gamedev.net posted material on how to get into the game industry after university . If this is true for you - read on how to prepare for your first interview in the game company.
The head of Ubisoft Toronto, Jade Raymond, told in an interview with the Games Industry Internationa l about how much the gaming industry needs experienced mentors.
“Can a developer succeed by making games for himself?” Is the topic of an interview with the creators of Bioshock, Jordan Thomas and Steven Alexander.
The ups and downs of Yoshinori Ono , producer of the Street Fighter series. The story of how the game first gave him life, and then almost took it away.
All about karma: decision-making and morale in games on the example of hits Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Infamous.
“The Kiss That Changed Video Games” is the story of how EA first introduced same-sex relationships to its games.
How internet users tried to falsify the results of Steam Summer Adventure and how Valve tried to stop them.
Funny stuff about the ridiculous names of video games . Perhaps someone will write an article about ridiculous translations of the names of video games?
Now you can take a look at the source codes, design documents, lockout methods and other materials of some games of the past, on which Chris Shrigley worked.
Sergey Anankin began publishing a series of articles on reverse balance engineering in games.
On mail.ru you can find out how tracks and cities are created in racing games and what books about games are worth reading.
Studies have shown that those who play violent video games are more sensitive to violence in real life.
On gamasutra.com published an interesting material on the work of game designers from the point of view of Internet users.
At Kotaku there was a review of the game Mountain. Yes, this is a mountain simulator.
An interesting article about stereotypes in video games.
With the help of the Oculus Rift, you can walk through the South Park.
You may have heard about the scandal that erupted around the graphics in Watch Dogs. Portal thg.ru analyzed the performance of the game in detail.

news

Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, began working with free-to-play mobile games.
The Video Games Higher Education Alliance is about to create a network that will help students better prepare for the industry.
Ukrainian studio Vostok Games announced the launch of the open beta PvP game mode Survarium. Starting from this day, the Russian-language version of the game will be available on the official project website for all comers.
Industry veteran Paul Newrett opened July 1 with his own studio, OtherSide Entertainment, which will specialize in remakes of classic gaming franchises. The studio has already received the rights to the brand Underworld.
This month there was a small conflict between the studios, which claim to be the official creator of STALKER ... Meanwhile, Kiiskstarter, the campaign from West Games raised $ 33,000 out of the required 50,000. Vostok Games was preparing to sue West Games studio. The problem was resolved peacefully , and the media were to blame for everything.
Stephen Toulouse returned to Microsoft and is currently working on the next part of the Gears of War franchise .

In an interview with EA CEO, Andrew Wilson said that the company learned the lessons taught by Battlefield 4 and promises not to repeat such mistakes.
Three former employees of the mobile-oriented company The Blast Furnace created a new studio.
In June, the debate about women in video games broke out again. This time , the creators of Assassin's Creed Unity , and later the creators of Far Cry 4, came under the distribution . The theme of women in the gaming industry and in the games themselves is still quite painful for our Western colleagues. Sandl Chan also raised the issue of animating female and male characters in games. An extensive article titled “Women are Difficult to Animate” appeared on the gamasutra blogs .
And then the South Korean International eSports Federation has banned women from taking part in the HearthStone tournament.
However, the International Association of Game Developers in the latest study found that 22% of the workers in the gaming industry are women. Since 2009, the number of representatives of the fair sex, who, one way or another, are associated with the development of video games, has doubled. Change is coming?

Gaijin Games are no longer "aliens . " The studio changed its name to Choice Provisions.
Steam Mashine will not be released this year. Most likely, the launch of a new product from Valve will be transferred to 2015.
Zach Braff (yes, yes, that same JD from the Scrubs) announced the release date of the movie about video games.
Atari decided to update the image. The company intends to pay more attention to mobile and online games, as well as to provide all possible support to the LGBT community.
Airtight Games officially ceased to exist. On June 6th, the last game from this studio came out: Murdered: Soul Suspect.
Kotaku has compiled a list of the best games of the first half of 2014.
Crytek is on the verge of bankruptcy . Despite the fact that quite recently cheerful articles and press releases from this company appeared on the network, it suddenly turned out that things are worse than ever: employees are being delayed in salaries, and rumors circulate that the creators of Ryse: Son of Rome are going to buy Wargaming.

Console News

Gamepad DualShock 4 from PS4 can now be connected to the PS3 without any wires.
What future awaits the PlayStation found out at the exhibition E3 Konstantin Govorun.
Steve Peterson from the portal alistdaily.com spoke about the problems of the PlayStation Now stream service .
Syuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Worldwide Studios, hopes that PS Vita will live at the expense of third-party and indie games.
Nintendo is not going to develop the service of gaming streams on its platform.

Interesting on Kickstarter

Insomnia is an atmospheric RPG in a diesel engine set-up with real-time tactical gameplay from the New York studio MONO.
We are the Dwarves! - tactical game in real time from Kiev studio Whale Rock Games. Read about the game and its creators can be on the portal kitchenriots.com or on Habré.
The Deer God is a game with 3D pixel art graphics that makes you think about religion and deer. If you collect another 15,000 dollars, of course.

Magazines and books

FPS №30 .
Create games without coding: Unreal Engine .

Significant events of June

Exhibition E3:

The day before E3: events and surprises.
Poster wars.
alistdaily.com: “What we learned at E3 . ”
Overview of the three main presentations: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo.

Google I / O

What you need to know about Google I / O.
After the fact from the portal code.tutsplus.com .

Apple Design Awards

Games at Apple Design Awards.

Quakecon

The absence of Carmack and the new Doom.

Tweets:

Managing designer of Epic Games is back in the ranks:


Joneman Nordhagen, 2K Marin programmer, founded his own studio:


Minecraft Mania:


Airtight Games said goodbye to fans:


Jonathan Cooper, animator of the Naughty Dog and Mass Effect projects, spoke about the recent discussion about Ubisoft and the animation of female characters:


FOX, known for its negative attitude to video games, borrowed the Bioshock: Infinite logo for one of its programs:


Audio

Everything you wanted to know about PBR is in the podcast on thegamedevcast.com.
Interview with the creative director of MachineGames about the game Wolfenstein: The New Order.
The podcast about the game this time concerned the E3 exhibition.
Disgusting men discuss HearthStone, GTA V and the games of the future.

Humor

The Spanish film company Zapruder Pictures recreated the GTA trailer in real life. In Madrid.

June on Habré

"How to make money on an indie game" - an article from George Zakrua. Extensive and interesting.
Klaskraft - translation of an article about an interesting game for schoolchildren.
Mail.ru blog has published the first article about the history of the gaming industry.
Great stuff about John Carmack.
The story of the creation of cinematics for the game "Sparta: War of Empires": part 1 , part 2.
The story of creating a world map for the game “C & C Tiberium Alliances”.
Is it possible to spam on Google Play?
Game development on Ogre.
Continuation of a series of articles on Caesar III.

Events in July and August

Game / AI Conference - July 7-10 in Vienna (Austria).
Tizen Developer Summit Russia - the summit of application developers for the Tizen platform in Russia. It will be held in Moscow on July 10th.
Develop Conference will be held in Brighton (UK) from July 8 to July 10
GaymerX2 is a gaming conference about LGBT culture in video games. It will be from July 11 to 13 in San Francisco.
asual Connect USA will be held July 22-24 in San Francisco.
[a] list Summit, dedicated to science , art and marketing, will be held July 31 in Los Angeles.
Nine Worlds Geek Fest will be held in London on August 8-10.
The GDC Europe Developer Conference will be held in Cologne on August 11-13. There will also be Gamescom from August 13-17.
Coventry (United Kingdom) August 22-25 will be a large-scale gaming festival Insomnia.