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thewildjoshwaa · 4 years

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Oni:Trials of Destiny Dev Blog

Pre Assumptions/Week 1

The first week we formed our groups. After a successful project working on Ashes myself, our former team leader Hassan and artist Cedez wanted to form up and work together for this project. However, this time we decided to take on Nela who is an excellent programmer, Mike who is a talented 3D modeller and Ella who is also a talented 3D modeller. Between the former Ashes team we decided we needed two modellers as opposed to one, as last time we had a very large workload to create 3D models just for one modeller. We decided this time we would need two in order to better space out that workload.

Last module I was an artist for the group and had helped with other aspects of the project such as texturing. This time however I wanted to work on the programming, as I had an entire semester working with code and would also be working in unity for my other project this semester. Therefore I believe I would be able to apply my new skills here. This was agreed with the entire group meaning we would have myself, Nela and Cedex as programmers. Hassan as team leader and artist. Finally Mike and Ella would be our 3D modellers. I was very happy with this team and felt we had one of the strongest teams assembled so far.

Our task this week was to each come up with a game idea and some concept art for it to show off our ideas and between us all pick one idea to go with and develop it for the project. My idea was a cyberpunk themed platformer where the player would have to track criminals/dangerous creatures and hunt them down bringing back the targets alive. The player would have to find clues in the levels to find them and track the target.

Week 2

After some careful consideration we actually took a few ideas from a couple of the other ideas we put forward and developed it as a group, each member contributing evenly to our idea until we had something concrete so everyone was happy working on the project in a passionate way.

Week 2 ended up being a very busy week for the group. In order to inspire the aesthetics of our game we built up a pinterest board centered around the Kitsune, Japanese mythology, futurism and other mythologies/cultures, which was collaborated on as a group. For my own personal contribution I was tasked with developing the character controller and the camera controller for the player in a white box level.

This is the first time I have worked on a 3rd person 3D game before, but with the help of some tutorials, developing these components I was tasked with this week turned out to be a relatively simple task at first. The challenge with this task was solving the camera collision and clipping issues we would inevitably have. I couldn’t get this to work perfectly from week 2, but I did manage to get the camera to collide correctly to limit clipping in terrain. Whilst clipping would still occur at this stage, I will have to tweak and refine the character controller in future weeks. For the purposes of a whitebox however, what I had developed this week would suffice.

Week 3

Again this week would turn out to be a very busy week as I had picked up 3 important tasks in terms of developing more basic mechanics for the player character. We also had a major setback in that Hassan unfortunately would leave the team this week to work on his placement for the BBC. Hassan would have been an amazing asset for our team so I saw this is a pretty big blow for us particularly because he was our project manager for the last project and now this one. Luckily we do still have a very strong team despite the loss of Hassan and Nela naturally stepped up in the project manager role, setting tasks for the team this week and organising our documentational side of things.

In terms of my tasks, I was developing the jump, dodge and health mechanics for the player. Unfortunately the jump and dodge mechanics took a little longer than anticipated to get working, I had some major issues with the jump being far too strong or too weak even though I was only increasing or decreasing the jumpforce by very small increments. I did manage to find a workable medium that would work for the very early prototype stages of the project, but the jump did feel very floaty and was still a little too high. Ultimately this will be worked on and tweaked in future weeks. For the dodge I opted to have a teleport style dodge similar to how Noctis would dodge attacks in the latest Final Fantasy instalment at the time. I did this as I was keeping in mind the workload for our modellers who would also be rigging the character for animation, and in order to lessen their workload I felt having a particle effect animation play when the character does the teleportation dodge would not only help reduce their workload, but also fit the character being a mystical kitsune with powers and look aesthetically pleasing at the same time. This would also need tweaking as right now the player can teleport through geometry which can cause bugs of falling through the map or skipping puzzles we had planned later down the development pipeline.

The final task I worked on was the Health mechanics. I had opted to develop a health system that both the player and the enemies can use, as well as a visible health bar that the player and enemies can use. I managed to get this working relatively fast and through testing damage to the player would accurately reflect on the player health bar.

Week 4

After a busy first few weeks for me in developing this project, this week was more relaxed. We were ahead of schedule compared to other groups, so this week was solely focused on refining the character controls and tweaking the current mechanics. Other members were working on getting assets into our would be level and developing the game infrastructure such as the menus. I also added sections on the Game design document based on the assets I had produced so far on the project.

Week 5

This week had some confusion. We had two white box levels. Myself and Cedez were working in one white box level and Nela was working in another. In order for Nela to test her enemies she had to incorporate some of the assets I had developed such as the camera controller and health system. I had to show Nela how to correctly set up and link the camera controller as well as how to set up the health bar on the enemies correctly. As a result of proper testing with the projectiles and multiple enemies this caused issues for the health bar both for the player and enemies. Whilst the health system itself was tracking the correct amount of health and damage for the player and enemies, the health bar wouldn’t reflect this properly. The issue was having multiple enemies on a level at the same time, the health bar script was looking for one enemy health bar to work with but it had multiple. In the end we took the health bar off the enemy entirely. This solved the issue with the player health bar also.

Week 6

We had successfully managed to transfer the assets we had to the actual game level people would play, and even the actual fox player models to the player and camera controller. This was in time for testing this week whereby we had first year game students come and give us feedback for the game. I was in charge of producing a questionnaire for playtesters to fill in and logging their feedback as well as any bugs they encountered.

As a result of their feedback we immediately started working on fixes to the bugs people encountered which I had helped with. The biggest contribution from me was fixing the camera controller making it way easier for the player controller because before the test it was clunky and strange to work with.

We also removed the dodge mechanic from the game as it was causing too many issues with clipping the player through the geometry and skipping parts of the level. We decided dodge was no longer required anyway and the player could work without this mechanic as the player had tools such as their projectiles to defeat enemies or they can easily sun away if they take too much damage.

Week 7

Week 7 was a very tough week for me personally. I was tasked with developing a sprint mechanic for the player and fixing some of the bugs that were reported in play testing. However I didn’t complete these tasks as I was faced with some very difficult and tough personal circumstances that caused me to lose my normal passion, motivation and fight to achieve in developing a game. I brought this to the attention of the group and they were very understanding with me and Nela was especially so as she picked up my tasks, and was very supportive.

Quarantine

Uni closed down and everyone was forced to work from home. I still had ongoing personal issues and was bouncing between places I was living, which limited my capability to work on the project. Due to the uncertainty and overall lack of motivation across the group there were a couple of weeks where a few group members understandably didn’t work on the project too much. Even Nela who I would say is the hardest working member of the group had knocked motivation based on the circumstances. During the early stages of this period the group didn’t communicate as much as we normally would have which is again understandable considering the circumstances. Thanks to all the hard work we had put into the project before the lockdown, these weeks where little was being developed didn’t affect the project too badly.

After a few weeks we managed to pull together as a group, fix issues, communicate better until the project was near completion. Towards the last 3/4 weeks before deadline we only had sounds to incorporate, narration for the cutscene and finishing up the documentation for these parts as well as producing a presentation with some gameplay. When I had personally bounced back I was tasked with creating fall damage for the character. I had successfully created working fall damage that reflected damage based on how far the player fell. However when applied to the fox character for some reason this would not work properly. Fall damage was being reflected with standard jumps when it shouldn’t and changing the fall value slightly would mean the player would take no damage no matter how far they fell. I brought this to Nela’s attention and she couldn’t figure out how to make it work properly either. We believe it has something to do with the fox having two character models at all times due to the transformation mechanic. As the transformation mechanic is a key mechanic and we were running out of time we decided to scrap fall damage for now and implement fences in places the player could fall from to skip parts of the level, or instant death if they fall to places the player shouldn’t go.

I was tasked with being the voice of the narrator. Between myself and Cedez we came up with a script that goes with the cutscene. We had to not only write something that goes in time with what the player is seeing but also provide enough story and context to give the player a better idea of what is going on in the game. We had no issues with the script or recording my voice and Cedez edited the narration to fit the cutscene.

My final effort with the project involved working on my task for the presentation we had to film. I talked about some of the things I had produced earlier on in the development for Oni. I quickly produced a speech and recorded myself going through it resulting in a three minute thirty audio clip. I then recorded gameplay whilst listening to the clip to ensure what I was playing fit with what I was saying in the speech which resulted in three minutes thirty seconds worth of gameplay on my segment of the presentation alone.

Post Mortem

Ultimately Oni:Trials Of Destiny really turned out well despite the setbacks we had as a group both before the lockdown and during it. Due to the group's strength, I believe we came up with a really cool prototype that is both fun and artistically pleasing. Both the programmer and the modelling teams did a great job on developing their assets as a team and we all supported each other and helped each other when it was required. Creating a 3D 3rd person platformer I thought was going to be a real challenge due to my own personal lack of experience in developing a game like this, but thanks to really digging in and researching how to develop a lot of the assets and components needed at the start of the project, really helped push me and learn.

I had learnt so much switching from an artist to a programmer for this unit. I felt being a programmer meant I was far more involved in the project and how it would turn out, whether it would be a success or a failure. I enjoyed the problem solving aspect of this role despite the stress it brought at times. Whilst some of the components I produced were not perfect, I had learnt a lot by making mistakes and having people like Nela and Cedez helping me, as I helped them at times during the project.

My only disappointment was the lull I had during my difficult time just before the quarantine and some weeks during the beginning of it. I wish I had bounced back sooner as I feel I disappointed my team despite their understanding, and I wished I picked up my own slack so they could get on with their own tasks. Whilst the end product of our project turned out really well, there were some things we couldn’t quite get to work such as the dodge mechanic and fall damage that if I did bounce back sooner, may well have been implemented properly into the game making it better. However, I did bounce back, I wasn’t down and out all the way through. This will make me a stronger game developer no matter what role I end up in future projects.

Asset List

- Character controller

- Camera controller

- Jump

- Dodge (not used)

- Health system

- Health bar script

- Fall damage (not used)

- Narrator (voice and script)

- Some Sections related to what I did, in the GDD

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rahimaldemir · 5 years

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Dying Light 2 - Q&A

In the official Dying Light discord one of the representatives, Uncy, from Techland held a q&a session during E3 2019 and I took the time to copy everything down. There were a lot of questions asked, but I only copied down the ones that were answered.

Uncy said they were going to post a FAQ with all of these questions and I’ll make sure to link it when they do. As of right now, I don’t think it has been released.

A lot of people were typing during the session and unfortunately a lot of questions got repeated. There is also a decent amount of typos in these questions, but it felt important to keep the Q&A session in an honest a form as possible, so I have not corrected any typos or omitted any duplicate questions.

I did add a “Q” and “A” to the beginning of every question and answer for clarity. Uncy used emojis sometimes in their answers, but I did not copy those over if they weren’t text emojis.

I have put my own notes in [italicized brackets].

WARNING: There are huge spoilers for The Following in these questions, they are marked to make them easier to avoid, but please be wary.

@tafferfield I know you got a pretty wicked master list of DL2 stuff, so if any of this helps you feel free to grab it and add it.

Putting under a read more because this is long:

Q: Are all current zombies considered volatiles? A: Not really, there are still regular zombies and volatiles

Q: Zombies only exit the night? A: now that's a hard one, zombies can stay outside for some time during the day but they get weak IN THE SUN

Q: How much diffrent endings are there? A: About endings - more than one, don't want to spoil it

Q: Battle royale mode? A: no BR mode

Q: Are you able to clear the city of zombies? A: Basically human learned how to deal with infection, so the more humans the less zombies

Q: how does Aiden stop from turning? does he use antizin or something else A: antizine is finished but human discovered that strong UV light weakens the infection, that's why you have the biomarker

Q: Is Aiden a foreigner to the land like Crane? A: Aiden doesn't even know Crane exists Q: I meant is Aiden from around there or did he come from somewhere else A: he's not from the city, he's an outsider

Q: What are future plans for multiplayer? A: multiplayer wise - we have some stuff coming apart from co-op, but I can't really share multiplayer details now

Q: Will there be a fallout kind of karma system? A: karma system? nope but your choices and actions will affect how people see you

Q: How long will one playthrough of the game be? A: hard to tell, but i know that dl2 will be a game for a long time

Q: Will dying light 2 feature the same great ragdoll physics as the first. A: upgraded ones

Q: Will the game be translated into Brazilian Portuguese as the first? A: more languages will come, cant really tell for now

Q: Can we expect to see actual time sensitive activities within the game? (IE: Do this now or forever lose the chance) A: Yes, but its more like choice wise, like do one thing and u will never be able to do another

Q: Will you play Dying Light 2 with me on release ;d? A: why not

Q: Will Aiden be customizable (e.g. hair, individual clothing pieces,etc) A: yup there will be customization

Q: Is there a weapon combo system? A: what do you mean by that? Q: Like a combo like last game you could spam attack and hold it for a more powerful attack, I'm asking if you can combo attacks like 2 quick attacks and then a charged attack or stuff like that [This question never actually got fully answered]

Q: Did anything replace the grappling hook. Did it change in anyway? A: there's a grappling hook - and some more options to travel cause the city is huge {you will be able to upgrade them}

[SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING]

Q:if the vial ending from the following is canon (if the following is canon) is crane a Volatile?

A: in some way - both are canon. It's up to the player to choose it Q: will Crane make an appearance or not. If you cant answer then atleast say which ending is canon A: not really

[END SPOILERS]

Q: Will the game launch with any DLC's? A: i dont think it will launch with dlc's but post release support is planned

Q: The last trailer showed working vehicles, will we be able to use some? A: Yes

Q: How many different kinds weapons are there (number) A: too many to mention, we're still adding more weapons

Q: is it sticking with the old crafting system or are y'all switching it up A: crafting system is upgraded a little

Q: are in dying light 2 developer tools having the chance to make custom movements and animations? A: I don't really have info about dev tools right now

Q: Are firearms coming back ? A: No guns, no firearms - but there will be distance weapons like crossbows

Q: do we gain strength or anything when nighs fall? since we are infected A: during the night you need to use UV lights to stop the infection, you wont get stronger

Q: is the choices you make permanant (one save only) or can you save and go back? A: you can save and go back on some difficulties

Q: Czy będzie drzewko umiejetnosci tak jak w 1 ? A: tak

Q: Is the max number in a party still going to be 4 or will more team members be able to join in co-op multiplayer, if there is any. A: 4 player coop

Q: is there a system where our beard can grow out and cut it same with hair like rdr2 asked a few times chat just to fast lol A: hmm, i don't think so

Q: Can you turn into a zombie if you dont pay enough attention to your wristband? A: that's still under discussion, i don't think you will be able to play as a zombier tho

Q: When the game releases, are you able to link your old account from DL1 to get rewards? A: we wont forget about dl1 owners

Q: will you be able to upgrade/modify tools like grappling hook and the UV flashlight? A: yes, tools will be upgradeables

Q: are we going to have trading cards to craft badges on steam with dying light 2? A: Yup

Q: Will the UI be changed completely, both in-game, etc? A: there will be some changes for sure, i dont know how hard tho

Q: How many skill trees are there, and are they any more complex? A: you can upgrade a lot of stuff now

Q: Are ranged weapons going to be as powerful as they were in DL1 or is it a bit more balanced A: there are no guns, so its balanced

Q: I wonder if we will see some more gameplay (apart from the trailer) from E3? A: something will come this month

Q: what are the main factions in dying light 2? A: Peacekeepers and scavengers - those are two main factions, but there are more

Q: Who is the girl in the trailer? A: that's actually one of our employees but for now all I can say that she's singing in one of the bars in the city

Q: Has the infection gone worldwide A: yup

[SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING]

Q: What happened to kyle crane? Will he have anything to do with the game

A: he ded

[END SPOILERS]

Q: will there be an enhanced edition or any other editions or just the normal one? A:there will be different editions - more details coming soon

Q: Will some weapons from Dying Light 2 (before release) be added in Dying Light? A: watch the trailer closely

Q: Are you taking in any alpha testers any time soon? If so I would like to be the first volunteer. A: there are no tests planned for now

Q: Referencing the Trailer, will we have the ability to choose our siding, survivor or what seem to be the "law"? A: its all up to you and your decisions!

Q: during the first game the side quests were some of the most amazing in the whole game, my question is, will those little side quests be present in the second game as well and will they also impact the game A: Yeah! side quests will be there and there wont be just easy fetch quests, but rather a small stories on their own

Q:There's a post. On twitter(?) That mentions something like "as Aiden you can do things no one elese can" Does that mean there will be benefits in having your infected level reach a certain level? A: Aiden is simply well prepared to live in The City - that's all I can tell right now

Q: Will there be new skill trees or the same ones? A: would be weird to put in the same skill trees

Q: can you upgrade parts of the town? and is roger smith coming back for Voice acting A: depends what do you mean, if you help certain people by your actions or choices, they will start to build stuff like bridges, farms etc which will help you, they will also get rid of the zombies from buildings etc

Q: Is it possible, that BTZ will be in Dying Light 2? A: possible but not confirmed

Q: can we get the song from the trailer? its sick A: I think i got the name somewhere, ill add it to faq [Couldn’t find Uncy’s link, but I was able to find two of the three soundtracks featured in trailers on youtube: Help I’m Alive and Crimson Blaze & Battlefields]

Q: Please dont add lootboxes A: Cmon

Q: Why can't we pre-order A: cause we don't have all the editions ready yet

Q: got 2 questions: - Will we have a season pass for a limited time just like in Dying Light so we can get the DLCs for free? - can us console players please get a fov slider A: 1.There will be a season pass 2. I'll let the devs know about fov slider

Q: Will there be a new type of villain like Rais? A: nothing is white or black in The City

Q: Will it be the same loot system or a loot system at all? A: what do you mean by loot system? like those crates etc? Q: I'm referring to weapons and stuff like that. A: then I don't really know, afaik it got changed a little

Q: Can we expect to see a different climbing mechanic, same with the grapple? A: parkour system is upgraded a lot, grapple is coming back ofc

Q: 1. are there gonna be volatiles in dl2? and are the zombies in dl2 more faster, brutal and better in movement to chase u down? A: There are new and old zombies, can't tell more atm

Q:Will some of the old zombie mutations be returning? A: yup

Q: Distance weapons are mentioned, does that mean a weapon smith we can get distanve weapon blueprints from? A: you can created your own weapons

Q: Are there other zombie types than the ones mentioned in the interviews? If so can we know a bit about them? A: there will be more, no info now tho

Q: On the topic of Grapple, is it expected to behave the same as DL1, or will it have a different mechanic, such as a swing? A: grapple is different now and you can upgrade it

Q: an we drop kick zombies and humans from sky scrapers? A: Yup

Q: Will the grappling hook operate the same as in DL1? I think it was overpowered and needed bigger cool down, it took away from parkour element a lot for me. A: as I said later, it's reworked a little - not OP now

Q: Is Brecken alive in Dying Light 2? Or is he maybe related to protagonist? A: no one from DL1 comes back

Q: Does no ranged mean guns or are we also losing the bow/crossbow A: never said no ranged, i said no firearms, ranged weapons will be there

Q: Will the gore be overhauled or different in Dying Light 2? A: it will be upgraded, there are also new finishers coming in

Q: Will quarantine zones come back? A: dark zones will be in the buiuldiings

Q: what happen to the cure A: gone

Q: will there be more weapon upgrades than in the first DL? A: a lot more

Q: can we put miniguns on vehicles or weaponize them like the buggy from The Following? A: I don't think so - nothing for now at least

Q:What happend to the GRE? A: They were there when the infection started - they are the ones that gave away the biomarkers - no sight of them in the city now

Q: If there's a co-op mode, what is the max amount of players in 1 lobby? A: 4 players max

Q: Will there be more end game content then dl1? A: yup, first of all you will have to finish the game multiple times to experience the game fully, end game will also be improved

Q: What do you think will be there an epic crossover mission when we meet kyle but he's turned A: I don't think he will come back

Q: Infected animals? A: animals will be there, you can hunt them, dunno about infected ones tho

Q: Are there children in DL2? If so, can we kill them? A: Brutal

Q: Referencing the ease of combat in DL1, can we expect to see actual struggle when going against enemies? Will we have the feeling of should I fight or run? A: Ups [???] depends on the difficulty for sure, some of the fights will be hard, for example - you fight some guys near to the building and then zombies hear it and come out for few minutes, and you have XvXvX fight to go trough

Q: Kiedy pre order? A: Niedługo

Q: are the voliatile hive quests coming back? A: you will be cleaning some mess for sure, I don't know if those particular quests will go back

Q: Alright. I asked if we'll get skin to customize our weapons as in we keep them forever as blueprints and we can apply them to any weapon? A: customization will be upgraded, that's for sure, I believe we will actually share more details about it in the future

Q: Will there be brutal finishers after stun, like in old Dying Light version where Kyle pulls out smth from the chest? A: yup, we're still adding more and more finishers

Q: Are safezones upgradable in any way? A: you can't upgrade them as in "click a button and its happening" it changes when you do something for the city or you act in some way

Q: is there gonna be a volatile chase mission in the sewer like dl1? "extraction" with more running action? A: that's a really gameplay-detailed question, I don't think i have answer for it now

Q: Will there be weapons rarities? A: some weapons will be stronger than other - don't know about how will we deal with rarities

Q: can we do farming? A: i think that other people are meant for farming, not Aiden

Q: Is dl2 going to have the same docket system like dl1 if not please explain A: dockets are cool, would be good to have them back

Q: Will zombies give a fight for your life feel, or will it be light DL1 where they are primarily just nuisances? A: try going to dark zone during the day, you wont get out of there alive

Q: do we have a different type of vehicles or just one like dl the following we only had the buggy + we are going to have horses and motorbikes or no ? A: there will be some vehicles - more about that coming soon

Q: is there going to be any refrences from dl1??? A: yup, there will be differences [I’m assuming the question was misread]

Q: you said that there wont be any firearms in DL2, but can you maybe tell what's going on in here, as a game dev? It confuses me quite a lot [pic of peacekeeper with what looks like a gun] A: concept arts are not 1:1 gameplay

Q: Is there gonna be something that can make you even stronger if you maxed out all skill trees? (Like the Legend in DL1.) A: that's a really late-game stuff, i believe something like that will come

Q: will the hostile factions attack you if you go into certain areas (i.e if you take a safe zone for a scavenger will the peackeepers attack you in an office building A: yup

Q: how much is pre order and when will it go live A: we are still taking care of different editions and prices

Q: Are the weapons going to become more modern as you level up ? A: nope, weapons are really "hand made" but they all look cool

Q: Will there be any stational turrets, which you can craft/use in some safezones to clear hordes? A: people are dealing with the infected, turrets are too modern

Q: we can pre-order the game soon ? i mean like next month maybe or after a while ? A: yup, preorders will go live when we will figure out the versions etc

Q: Will multiplayer/coop loot be instance based, or client base? (DL1 uses a client base, as each player gets their own drops/items from chests/zombies) Instance based would be there's only 1 item for all players, first to grab gets. A: We still need to figure that out, I believe we will check which one is better

Q: any cool easter eggs coming? A: a lot of them

Q: Will there be any missions that require 4 players, and can more people join you for the final boss? A: 4 people is max

Q: will there be any more presentations or info about DL2 at e3? A: there will be more + new s this month

Q: Will there be boss fights and if there is at the last story mission do we have to be alone? A: don't ask about last mission when the game is not out

Q: we can play with animals like far cry ? i mean like u send animals to attack zombies or something like that, and will there be infected animals too or no ? A: you will be able to hunt animals for resources, i dont think you will be able to tame them

Q: what your prediction about the pc spec? A: i think you will be fine if you can run modern games, We go for FPS over resolution and we aim for 60 at ps4 and xone, its not confirmed tho

Q: so is there going to be some sick loot if we have dl1 and bad blood?? A: there will be something for DL owners

Q: Are there gonna be hunger and thirst bars, and food and drinks you can loot around the world or get from faction cities and safe zones? A: that's still under discussion, its not confirmed

Q: Will we see random wildlife throughout our explorations? (Not those of zombies.) A: yup and you can hunt them

Q: Will we be able to use the dying light companion app in Dying Light 2 A: probably yes

Q: so is there infected animals or no ? A: I dont think so, it's not really confirmed, so we will see

Q: Can we get a confirmation that the dev tools will be available eventually considering it massively increase the longevity of the game and wasnt a total fuckup of a decision like bad blood was? A: about dev tools - im still waiting for confirmation

Q: sorry for the torture but will there be a PVP gamemode or any special gamemode for DL2? A: we will have multiplayer based discussion, for now there are no details to tell about mp

Q: will DL2 get better mod support ? Something like Fallout 4 so we can add more stuff to the game A: i hope so

Q: asking again, will there be seasons? like winter and summer with weather changes? A: I don't think so

Q: Do i have to side with 1 faction completely? Do certain factions control certain safe zones or are safe zones neutral territory? A: nope, you don't have to side with 1 faction

Q: limitation (character inventory)? Like we can no longer have unlimited or 99x items in stacks - including crafting materials. A: I think there wont be limits to crafting materials, like 99x, i need to confirm that with devs tho

Q: Will there be walking zombie hordes, which will try to destroy safe zone's gates? And will it be like event? (is it really possible)? A: people's safe zones are protected with UV lights, zombies wont cross them

Q: Can I sleep in Dying Light 2 to skip night? A: the whole day-night cycle is changed in DL2, more details coming soon

Q1: will there be xray like in the old game A: what x ray Q2: Survivor sense, he meant I think Q3: the critical blue hit, when u hit a zombie, thats what he means A: oh, survivor sense is coming back

Q: Will duplications be patched frequently? As in DL1 there are still many that can occur. A: well i hope there wont be any dupe glitches

Q: Around how long would it take to playthrough the game once? A: quests etc are still coming so i cant really tell how long it will be right now

Q: Btw every pre-order got a bonus content so ofc dl2 got bonus content so when i buy the game after the release i can get this content even if i buy higher edition or its for pre-orders only ? A: i dont think we will have any preorder exclusives, time will tell tho

Q: How many quests Will there be? A: a lot

Q: how many or which of the zombie types from the first game will we see again in DL2? A: everyone from DL1 is coming back (zombie wise) wise some cool additions and upgrades

Q: How many factions are confirmed so far or at least under disussion? A: 2 main ones are confirmed, and there will be more side ones

Q: will there be any sort of vehicles we can drive in DL2? A: yup there will be vehicles

Q: Will there be shields and (fast?) counterattacks after blocking? A: ripostes will be there, im not sure about the shields but u can block without it

Q: The map takes place in a City, is this city based on a real life counterpart? A: it's a fictional city based on european cities

Q: what happened to the firearms i mean why they are removed from the game ? A: they are very rare commodity 15 years after diseaster

Q: can we drive vehicles? A: yes

Q: When does the Q&A end? A: in around 10 minutes

Q: I don't know if this was asked. But Will we be able to explore more then the city? A: the city alone is 4 times bigger than the first DL, there is a lot to explore, dunno about going outside tho

Q: Will there be some type of pvp in the game? A: more info about multiplayer modes will come very soon

Q: Who is the voice actor for aiden A: dunno to be honest xD not the kyle voice actors and that what matters [This has been released. Aiden’s voice actor is Jonah Scott.]

Q: So there is firearms in the game but they are very rare and hard to find ? i mean u can still find them but its hard right ? A: i mean that they are so rare that you wont find one, but as i said, there are still ranged weapons, and some you can craft on your own

Q: Will it be a new Be The Zomby ? Or Human player invading other world like DS3 ? A: as i said, no details for multiplayer this time, sorry! :x

Q: Will the implemented day/night cycle have any special amendments? (Can we expect to see random encounters/anomalies on random nights/days?) A: would be cool, ill ask devs

Q: In the trailer we saw bracelet and how "charges go down". What will happen if it goes down and will we have "antizin"? Can we buy or trade it? A: there is no antizine, strong UV lights weakens the infection, its still under discussion what will happen when it will go to 0, most possible outcome is simply dying and having to restart the game

Q: Hold up. "No guns" or "very rare guns"? I saw both those answers from Uncy A: its pretty much the same, like, they're all pretty much gone

Q: what about invasions? Be the zombie A: no multiplayer details now

Q: Is the game 4 times bigger then just the slums? Or the WHOLE game A: the whole game without the following

Q: Will there be more interactions within the game? (IE: Fishing, skinning the animals we hunt, cooking, etc) A: yup, there will be a lot to do in the city

Q: Will DL2 be on next gen xbox as it just got announced? A: right now we plan ps4 xone and pc release

Q: Will it be possible to take (offline) single-player saved games online, and if so, what proactive measures will Techland take to prevent game-save mods from disrupting the online multiplayer experience? A: as i said, multiplayer details will come in the future, those things are still under discussion

Q: Can we go and roam outside the city? A: Aiden wants to stay in the city

Q: my final question what is the virus called is it still called the harran virus A: well it's not in harran only anymore

Q: Is there some way to calculate just how many final outcomes you can get out of the game? Like in Detroit Become Human for example A: not really, not right now at least

Q: will screamers have more of a purpose then obstacle you have to get around A: they will be different this time

Q: Legend levels made the first game really easy so are they in dl2 or no ? and if they are there so is it balanced now or it will still make the game so easy ? A: legends levels are still under discussion as well

Q: Still another question about that charges... Will there be some visual and sensitive effects (like in Dying Light where the screens goes green and we dont have stamina)? A: yup, i think so at least

Q: Will there be more detailed animations for each thing we do? (If we activate our flashlight, Aiden would reach to his shoulder to turn it on) A: some things are speed up of course to not be annoying, but there will be more animations, like imagine having to reach the uv light for a 10000 time when volatile is at your face

Q: Will this channel remain so we can review all the previously stated questions? A: it will be closed but it will remain (i need to make QA out of it)

Q: Will it be possible to take (offline) single-player saved games online, and if so, what proactive measures will Techland take to prevent game-save mods from disrupting the online multiplayer experience? A: i responded to that with - no multiplayer details for now, I really don't have any info about it

Q: Can we ride horses ? A: nope

Q: Is korek in dl2? A: i dont think so

Q: anything to mention about Night hunters? A: night runners you mean? actually Aiden is the only man capable of reviving hte nightrunners caste

Q: wingsuit? A: maybe this will be one of the things we will be talking about - i mean, new traversal options

Q: Will we have the ability to pursue affections of NPC? Such as a friend meter, or even a lover? A: you will be able to interact with every single npc in the game - how? you will see

Q: Any building destruction in ds2? Like walls collapsing when you use explosives, would be cool A: just the last one - yes environment is destructible in some cases

#dying light 2 #dying light #the following spoilers #aiden caldwell #techland #long post #mod post #stills #dying light spoilers

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excellynt · 6 years

Photo

Been super busy with my brother’s wedding this last week, but it’s finally over. It was beautiful. The cakes were delicious and topped with the Super Mario Odyssey special wedding attire amiibos because we’re all a bunch of goddamn nerds and had a good time. The “bachelor” and “bachelorette” party was low key and just a small coed LAN party in which I stomped everybody at least once in Nidhogg, which I discovered is a hella fun game. I was also stomped many times because that’s how the game is, haha.

Since I’m mentioning IRL stuff, figure I should give an update about my cat. She’s been doing remarkably well, acting like nothing even happened. And then today I learned my grandparents may be able to fund getting her an MRI and surgery for the probable brain tumor causing her seizure activity. She’s very old (18 years), but in good health otherwise and still sweet and spunky.

The Ukagaka Dream Team now has tumblr and an actual website so we can have in-house FTP for the Network Update feature that so many developers struggle to get working with the one free site that works for it. I’ve also set up a Patreon for my ghost development and running of the Ukagaka Dream Team itself, which is a hundred members strong at this point with up to 30 developers (9 of them have released ghosts).

I pay over $250 per year for all the domain+hosting, so a main perk of the patreon is giving developers FTP access on ukagakadreamteam.com for a nominal amount each month to help offset those costs. Anyone can fund anyone’s access, so even if the dev themself can’t pay, someone else can cover for them.

I just. need help covering the costs, as I had to cancel my own patronages on the site because I couldn’t manage my $10 pledge to @underfellfangame with $8 in my bank account at the end of last month.

I’m still getting it set up or I’d link it here. I’ll be able to share it soon, along with possible ghost-related commission options for me and other people on the @ukagakadreamteam. An entire ghost would warrant hundreds of dollars, but lesser things could be pretty affordable.

Phew.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually managed quite a bit of development despite all this, just no time or energy to blog about it. To summarize: the currently released dev build has had a ~30% implemented feature that allows users to filter MVSans’ random dialogue by categories. Something not jive with your headcanon? Tired of hearing the same jokes? Well, there’s a fix for that, which also does so much more now that it’s 90% implemented in my working build!! I’ll leave details of this and other things for another post since this one’s plenty long already.

(Menu is still pretty WIP, but functionality’s 90% there)

Anyway! Thanks for the support, everyone. People have sent me kind words about my cat and other stuff I’ve been dealing with. I have a bunch of neat features in store I should be able to announce later this week!

bonus from UDT community: 1-UP Cake

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theresawelchy · 5 years

Text

How to Build an Effective Remote Team

Howdy fellas!

Never before has there been such a large number of remote employees scattered around the world. And several businesses that prefer a remote team building format still increases. It is a flexible and viable model if it is properly organized.

A work team is like a ship’s crew: everyone has a role to play in a huge effective system. A remote team is a virtual ship crew, a ship that floats in the future of work.

Like most IT companies, Standuply crew has a cozy office too, where we go to work every day. As an office team, we managed to reach considerable heights in product building, but it was time to expand the team. So we decided to set the course in the direction of remote team building and began to look for employees in other places.

Now, many months later, we know a lot about remote work: how to work from home, how to manage a remote team and how to create a business with employees who rarely see each other in real life.

Don’t get us wrong, we don’t want to say that everyone has to quit office work and start working remotely right now. We really love our office, but also we have an experience of remote team building and now want to share it with you hoping that it will help those who have not passed that hard way yet. So are you standing in front of the challenge of building a remote team and do not know where to start? Then this article is for you.

Cast off! We are going on our journey across the workflow! Remote workflow, to be specific.

Less is More

This is the first rule that you need to consider in team building with remote employees. First of all, you need to identify the people you need and what they will do. No need to recruit a lot of people, just take three persons who will be able to do the work for the five. This does not mean that three people have to work for the whole company, it means that working remotely employee performs a greater amount of work than working in the office, making the same efforts and not being distracted.

Most modern IT offices are coolly equipped, there are a lot of bean bag chairs instead of hard ones, and even hammocks, you can play kicker with colleagues, and some offices like Google’s one reminds children’s town. We do not argue with the fact that a cozy office is indeed awesome because everybody should work in comfort.

Those who go into remote work just clearly understand that work is the work, not just a kicker.

They create a comfortable area around themselves for work and they have no temptation to have snacks with employees and games. They plan when they work and rest during the remaining time.

This rule is about minimalism. Remote employees just don’t need such stuff that office gives, such as table football, and bean bag chair could be at home.

Find an ideal employee

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest! um… startup.

Search for perfect employees, who will succeed in the project implementation and will strive to realize the global idea. Companies that hire remote employees are much more likely to find a candidate with the unique abilities necessary to perform tasks because the geographical search from one sea expands to the world ocean. There are dozens of such skills, but we have identified four main criteria, which we look at when choosing an employee:

– Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of.. enthusiasm!

Any captain wants each of the crew to share the interests of the whole ship, see him/her being proud of work and striving for common success. Enthusiasm is the fuel in the workflow ship that keeps it afloat. It all starts with an idea and desire to bring it to life. It is critical that applicants are interested in your company’s area. If a candidate at the interview did not even bother to read about the project on its official website, he/she would waste your time.

– Perfectionism (but not too much)

For a remote employee, it’s important to think critically and evaluate the work done objectively, especially if the time zone is different. Being picky and look at work as a head. The person needs to clearly understand the main goal, be able to break it into small ones and move step by step to achieve the main goal.

– Make work, not shirk

Office employees are used to working and getting paid for the time, for example from 9 to 6. Remote workers are paid not for the time, but for a result that should not be affected by any distracting things, whether it’s a sudden general cleaning or a kid who wants to watch SpongeBob right now. Or possibly it is you who want it, whatever. All this can cause the work to be completed in the last minutes before the deadline.

– Desire to work

And to learn. If the person is too lazy, has no desire to develop, and is looking for work only for money, most likely he/she is not interested in the company’s goals at all. The imaginary presence of a few working hours at the computer will not help this new fish to join the team. But what is more important is to contribute to the development of the company. It’s not gold that should keep a sailor on board.

As a rule, lazy employees are eliminated at the test task stage. If they are not really interested, they will not spend their time. You don’t need people like that.

We’ll talk more about how to cultivate these traits to go to a remote job as a job seeker and without any discomfort, but this article is not just about that.

I will call you yesterday…

Or timezones problem. Well, let’s say you found the perfect sailors on your virtual ship, but here’s the problem – time zones. If the time difference is up to 8 hours, it is almost invisible. Anyway, most of the day you are in touch with the employee.

In some cases, you will have to initially look for an employee to work at your night time, which means a time difference of 10-12 hours because the position involves working in shifts, but 24/7.

This time gap reduces the ability to call/chat during the day, so you need to allocate a couple of hours to call and give as much detail on the daily tasks for the employee to prevent possible questions to you.

What about tools?

For the most automated operation and correct processes resolution during remote team building, you will need some tools. Fortunately now on the market, you can find a lot of cool programs-assistants both paid and free and even choose by the price/functionality ratio.

– Messengers

Among messengers, we prefer Slack, of course. Our Standuply bot daily helps hundreds of teams to organize processes in Slack and to establish communication channels. Here you can read more about how to run standup meetings in Slack via Standuply. For us, this messenger is like an office: logging in Slack means coming to work.

Build a better team culture in Slack with Standuply too!

Still, of course, we use Telegram and Skype. The first is more convenient for chatting, the second one is useful for calls.

– Tasks trackers

Notebooks in the past! Use task trackers to not keep all your plans, ideas and tasks in mind. In our opinion, Asana, Trello or Jira are the most convenient ways to plan your workflow as in a diary. All tasks can be painted on the urgent or not, and forget something very difficult because everything is before my eyes. Actually, the most difficult thing is to teach each team member to use task trackers and systematically mark each step.

– Time Helper

It’s not so easy to find common work time and schedule calls with employees scattered around the world. If team members are in different time zones, you’ll need the World Clock program for Mac. In other cases, Every Time Zone or World Time Buddy will help you with time planning.

– Cloud Storage

So, in a big team, you can not deal without a storage solution which extends to cover network drives. And in that case, for us, Google Drive has no equal. It will not only free up space on your hard drive but also make it easier to communicate with your team. It is much more convenient to share a link to a document and give access to editing instead sending the same file to each other for the sake of one little edit. In addition, if your computer suddenly breaks down, you can be sure that your documents are safe in the network.

– Remote Screen Control

“Ahh! I clicked something and it’s all gone! Devs please do something!” Huh, familiar words from employees who are far from coding, aren’t they? In such a situation, it is easier to do yourself than to explain what button to press. For remote support and screen sharing, you can use a wonderful TeamViewer that allows you to control someone else’s computer and solve the problem with your own hands. Also, this program is used for remote technical support of users.

Motivation

It is hardly possible to single out a special motivation for remote employees, as for a separate type of employees. Each person’s motivation is individual, regardless of whether it is a remote or office employee. And it is important to focus on the person, analyze and to think, what is important for each one. The difference is that it’s much more difficult to understand the values and aspirations of the employee, whom you don’t see daily in the office.

Normally, it’s a set of needs, for example, an interesting area, a convenient schedule, and a decent salary. If the person is attracted only by the format of remote work or a good salary, but absolutely do not care about work itself, then it is unlikely to achieve good results.

Your sincere interest and praise even for the simplest tasks are very important for the employee’s good motivation. Did a newbie just solved a simple problem or came up with a new idea? Tell that person is doing great and you never would have come up with that yourself. Without any sarcasm, just let the employee know that he/she is important and much in the project depends. And then the person will do very best not to let you down.

Control your control

Obviously, when you build a remote team, it is difficult not to worry about the employees’ productivity. How do you know if a person is really working if you are not sitting in the same room? But actually, the problem is not about hundreds of miles between you and the employee. The problem is about lack of trust.

Some companies force remote employees to install special programs on a personal computer for time control. These are accounting systems for website traffic and counting employees’ work time. We strongly don’t support such method (and we didn’t even mention these apps in the tools section) and that’s why:

Firstly, such a distrustful attitude kills any motivation and initiative. Your employee will do the job half-heartedly and just to work off the required hours.

Secondly… Really, if there is a need to control your worker so much, do you need such worker at all? People choose remote work for freedom and the opportunity to work for the result, not for the number of hours spent on the site. Remember that your remote employees are your secret weapon.

Give your employees the freedom they are looking for and you will be surprised how effective people can work if they are not pressured.

Instead of conclusion

If you follow these uneasy rules (who said that remote team building is an easy thing?), you can assemble a remote dream team. Because the opportunities for this become more and more widespread every day. New developments are emerging, the interest of remote employees is growing, and the owners of companies are finding more and more benefits of such a solution. Remember, it is not enough to find and organize really valuable employees. They need to be interested and motivated for the best result — and this rule is applicable for any type of teams.

So good luck and may the wind be in your jib!

DataTau published first on DataTau

#Technology #Finance

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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How the pandemic has transformed work in the game industry

The pandemic has impacted all of us, including the game industry. Sure, many publishers are reporting record engagement and increased revenues as players flock to games for entertainment and distraction. But what about the people who make these games?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve talked to some of the studios, creators, and software makers about how COVID-19 has changed they way they work. Of course, this has meant adjusting to a new normal of people working remotely. Companies used to offices and immediate access to colleagues are now getting used to video conferences and turning personal spaces into working ones.

This changes the way games are made, and it can make the process more difficult.

Development never ends

Chris Wilson is the studio head for Grinding Gear Games, the developer behind the hit free-to-play action role-playing game Path of Exile. It’s a long-lived title that has become popular thanks to a steady stream of constant updates. It keeps offering new content, so its players are rarely bored.

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“One of the big attributes of Path of Exile that’s been successful is that there’s a reliable release schedule,” Wilson told GamesBeat. “We release every 13 weeks. One of the reasons why we get a lot of players at those releases is because the community just knows when — there’s a cadence to it. They know when to come back. They’re excited about it. It’s easy to drop back in. We want to keep that cadence. We don’t want to say, no, we’re delaying stuff for months.”

But not only is Grinding Gear always working on new stuff for Path of Exile, but the studio is also developing Path of Exile 2. It’s plate isn’t just full, it’s spilling over. And now it has to work on these projects with a new reality: people working from home.

“The concept of people working from home was something we really didn’t want to have to accept, but for health reasons of course, we have to put our staff’s health first, so we started to get things set up so that people could,” Wilson told GamesBeat. “And that setup time was important, because rather rapidly, as soon as New Zealand got its first case of community transmission in March, the government announced, you have two days to be working from home and everyone is in total lockdown.”

Above: Path of Exile 2 is Grinding Gear’s next game.

Image Credit: Grinding Gear Games

This is a tough situation for a studio used to close collaboration and outputting new content on a regular basis. Working from home can be good or bad, but it always different. And that uncertainty can be stressful.

“An artist working on Path of Exile 2 assets is going to work at his desk making assets all day just like he was before, which is great,” Wilson continued. “But all of the upper management is scrambling to keep people working efficiently from home, with our existing release schedule of updates. We have a management deficit for the sequel at the moment, which won’t affect its quality of course, because we’ll make sure to do the management as we can. It’s just going to affect its release time. We’re going to be in a situation where assets are ready earlier than we need them, because we’re behind on getting them integrated into the game and functioning correctly and so on. I do expect that the pandemic will probably have a bit of an impact on our release schedule for the sequel, but honestly it was up in the air anyway. It’s an ambitious project. We’ve said we’ll release it when it’s ready.”

Warframe developer Digital Extremes is in a similar situation. Warframe is another free-to-play game that receives constant updates. Rebecca Ford is its live ops director and one of the most visible members of the staff to the game’s community. She’s also the voice of the Lotus, who serves as an in-game guide for players. She does a ton of work for Warframe, and the pandemic has now changed the way she does that work, both in big and small ways.

“I miss having coffee on the go,” Ford told GamesBeat. “I miss having instant access to food I don’t have to buy. I miss our catered lunches. I miss just walking in and being fed. Woe is me! I said, unironically. I have to make my own lunch. This is insane. I have not had to make my own lunch in nine years, just for the record.”

Now that Warframe’s staff is working from home, employees are more dependent on communication tools like Slack to be efficient.

“We’ve been integrated in Slack so heavily for the past five years, I’d say, that it’s not too big of a change in communicating on Slack with my team,” Ford continued. “It’s just I don’t have any other option. I kind of regret how much I relied on Slack before when I could have just talked to people side by side, but now it’s like, you have no choice, it’s only Slack.”

Different platforms, different problems

And depending on what platform you’re developing for, you can discover some unique problems. Patrick O’Luanaigh is the CEO of nDreams, the studio behind the upcoming Oculus exclusive Phantom: Covert Ops, a stealth-based game that has you piloting a kayak.

“We’re a VR developer, so everyone had to take all of our equipment home,” O’Luanaigh told GamesBeat. “You can’t log into a VR headset remotely at the office, because you can’t put it on. You have to have your powerful PC to do your development and test on a VR headset at home. We had to get everyone’s headsets and hardware and PCs and monitors home with them, which isn’t quite the same in terms of more traditional development. But things like dev kits have had to go back to people’s houses. We had to get permission from the hardware manufacturers to take headsets home and all sorts of stuff. That was a bit of a pain initially.”

Phantom: Covert Ops releases on June 25. O’Luanaigh notes that it can be easier working on the post-production part of game when everyone is at home.

“We’ve found that for a game in the later stages, everyone knows what you need to do. You have your bugs to fix. Everyone’s got their task.”

Above: Phantom: Covert Ops is launching during a pandemic.

Image Credit: nDreams/Oculus

Pre-production, however, can be more fluid. People are creating concepts and building the foundations of a game. That can take more iteration and collaboration, which can be difficult when your staff is all working apart from each other.

Joel Burgess is the studio director at Capy, the developer behind the mobile hit Grindstone, a puzzle game that debuted alongside the Apple Arcade subscription service. Capy is based in Ontario, Canada, and Burgess has been helping the government there support gaming studios during the pandemic.

“I got thrown in very quickly when the pandemic started, into this committee for the minister of tourism, heritage, and culture for Ontario,” Burgess told GamesBeat. “We’re doing a whole bunch of meetings and subcommittees and all this stuff every week to make recommendations on how the government can support companies through COVID. I would say 90 percent of these meetings and subcommittee stuff is making sure that there’s financial health for studios.

The committee is especially important for indie developers.

“A lot of those smaller studios, having somebody who started the game pull out and now they’re not going to get a milestone payment, that can bankrupt them,” said Burgess . “The damage to the Toronto indie scene could be catastrophic, if suddenly a bunch of people who had been able to make it because of government assistance, if they can’t because those programs are bogged down in red tape or something.”

As for Capy itself, Burgess is glad that Grindstone became a known quantity before the pandemic hit.

“I wouldn’t say that the pandemic has been good for us. I think it’s more a matter of, from a damage mitigation perspective, I’m happy that we have a product on a platform like Apple Arcade that’s doing well,” Burgess notes. “Grindstone is out. We know what it is. We know what we like about it. We read what critics and fans say about the game and can respond to that. Which means the team has something to work on that’s really clear.”

But as O’Luanaigh from nDreams talked about earlier, stay-at-home work becomes more difficult for games early in the development process.

“We had other stuff going on in the studio that I can’t talk about, because it’s newer and earlier and still secret,” said Burgess. ” That stuff has been much more of a challenge, because those early stage projects have uncertainty in them already, and when we’re in this situation where people have anxiety about their lives and the world, and then you mix that with project anxiety, because everyone has a different version of this game in their head, that compounds.”

Capy is a small studio with just 25 people. This presents Burgess with an additional challenge: protecting his employees’ mental health.

“If I were still at Ubisoft, for example, there’s an apparatus there with HR and management relationships and all of that, to check in on people. When you’re in a small indie studio, you rely a lot more on organic personal connections to check on people, because you’re friends,” Burgess explained. “I’m concerned about it. People on the team with whom I’m close, I can get a sense that, say, this is a rough week for them. But we’re just small enough that we don’t have more formal systems for checking in on people, and we’re just big enough that you can’t rely on it being five people who know each other super well.”

Staying connected while stuck at home

Apps like Slack and Zoom have become a regular part of many gaming companies’ lives. Some are even using programs designed for less practical reasons to help make work more efficient. Benjy Boxer is the co-founder of Parsec, software that makes it possible for people to use cloud gaming to play and stream with each other. But Parsec also has tools for screen-sharing and accessing other computers remotely.

“You can use it as an indie game developer to log into your workstation at the office,” Boxer told GamesBeat. “But there are larger companies that are saying, hey, we really need this so that our game developers can connect to their workstations from outside the office.”

But people are still using Parsec for its main intention, which helps people play games together.

“That hasn’t really changed,” Boxer continued. We’re seeing a very significant increase in that usage, to be frank, but the way that people use Parsec is to play games with their friends. They invite their friends to join their PC and they play together. I believe what is happening is — from the consumer side of things, if you’re interested in that, people need a social connection. They’re using Parsec and games for that social connection, because we’re all isolated and feeling lonely. At least I am. Parsec is a great product to continue to connect to those who you want to be connected to. That’s what’s driving a lot of the consumer usage right now. People need that social connection, and then they want an escape through games.”

Above: Xbox Series X could be coming out during a pandemic.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Matias Rodriguez if the vice president of Technology Gaming Studio at Globant, an IT and software development company. I asked him about a logistical problem facing developers. Many of them have dev kits for the next-gen systems, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. You need those to do a lot of work on games for those upcoming systems, but you can’t exactly move them around to different people’s homes. Is this going to have a big impact on the creation of PlayStation 5 and Series X titles?

“No, there is actually a workaround,” Rodriguez told GamesBeat. “We’re working remotely with them, so there is a workaround. The problem is that for some of the work, like optimization work, even with the best remote solution, it’s not possible. At some point — it doesn’t affect some things, because you can buffer them, but at some point it will require having those devices. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft and Sony are having discussions about that. Now, next-gen, as you can imagine, you also have the complexity of manufacturing. There’s not a lot of stock. Logistics are more complicated. That makes things more sticky. It’s not necessarily a full hold on production, but it’s definitely something — it doesn’t have the velocity or productivity of Steam, something like that.”

Future impact

So far, Microsoft and Sony are still committed to releasing their new consoles later this year. But we don’t know exactly what impact the pandemic will have on the games coming to these systems. Considering the long development period for many games, we could be seeing the fallout of this situation for years to come.

But it isn’t all bad news.

“A positive is that a lot of companies are now seeing that they can have more time to develop,” Rodriguez continued. “That could translate into teams having less crunch time and other things that, toward the end of the game, could be more problematic. Now, if because of the pandemic, you earn four or five months of delays because it doesn’t make sense to release a huge title under these conditions, then you end up with more buffer, more time. Again, that’s on the production side. On the consumption side, for a lot of people, they’re discovering games. There’s something very interesting we saw the other day.”

And once the pandemic is over, can we expect companies adopt more lenient work-from-home policies?

“The honest answer is we have to talk to all the employees,” nDream’s O’Luanaigh told GamesBeat. “We have to see how they feel. People don’t really feel safe yet coming back to the office, and we certainly wouldn’t force anybody back until they felt comfortable. We’re going to wait and see how it pans out. But I’ll be very surprised if we don’t have more flexibility than we did before. I suspect that there will be more working from home.”

Right now, many parts of America are attempting to reopen. This could result in another wave of COVID-19 cases. And even if it doesn’t, the pandemic will have a lasting impact on how the gaming industry operates. Working from home may become more common for companies that once depended on the office environment.

Like most of the country, gaming wasn’t ready for the pandemic. But developers have done what they can to adapt, working hard to offer entertainment to millions of people looking for fun during a dark time.

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aruneshgoyal · 4 years

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The Contextual Major Plot Featuring India-Pakistan World Cup Tie as Also Wedding Anniversary of the Main Protagonists

Mahesh and Saraswati are well settled now in India (old Delhi) with kids, Shaloo - thirteen years of age, and Brij - nine years old. Mahesh is a devout Hindu, especially dedicated towards Goddess Durga and his wife, Saraswati is a pious Muslim lady before marriage by the name – Shakila.

Now, husband and wife for the last fifteen years ever since 15th February, 2000, Mahesh and Saraswati are all set to celebrate their fifteenth wedding anniversary along with another grand event, Indo-Pak World Cup cricket clash planned for the day, viz. the fifteenth of February, 2015.

Cricket has always been their cup of dilemma and duel especially due to Shakila’s brother, Hussaini Bhai, being a member of the Pakistan cricket team for the last ten years as an all-rounder (medium pace bowler and a power hitter just akin to our Kapil Dev).

This World Cup, in particular, is especially important for him as he is going to announce his retirement after the Indo-Pak match; moreover, Pakistan, sensing victory, out of the rather low morale of the Indian team due to repeated defeats on its tour of Australia, just on the eve of the mega event, are going all out this time to break the jinx of having never beaten India in a World Cup fixture as yet.

After marriage, being a dedicated wife as she was, Saraswati alias Shakila was always in a state of turmoil – whether to support her husband or her brother! The children too were at loggerheads on this issue. Hussaini Bhai also adopted certain Hindu customs after the marriage of his sister to Mahesh, which included the celebration of the much wonted and acclaimed ‘Raksha-Bandhan’ festival with the tying of the sacred thread on his wrist by his sister, elder to him by a good seven years.

Whenever Saraswati would handcuff him with a sparkling ‘Rakhi,’ he would seek her blessings you guess what, your guess is as good as mine – asking for his team’s victory over India in the upcoming matches. February 15 in 2015 was no different. He had already sought his sister’s affectionate blessings the previous year in the wake of his upcoming retirement from international cricket. Before leaving for Australia-New Zealand, the venue of this year’s edition of the World Cup, Hussaini Bhai had touched his sister’s feet yet again, promising to call her before the all-important Indo-Pak contest.

True to his word, before leaving for the cricket arena on the actual day of the match, Hussaini Bhai had called his sister, Shakila alias Saraswati, and said – “dear sister Shakila! Please bless me so that not only do I perform well with both bat and ball but also our team does well and goes on to defeat India!” Shakila, in reply, said simply – “dear brother Hussaini! I am a wife more now than a sister. Still, I pray to God that you perform well in your last encounter before retirement. As for defeating India, I cannot say anything but only that it be an absorbing contest between the two teams for the spectators to feast upon and the better team which does better today win!”

Mahesh and the two children – Shaloo and Brij, were standing just nearby, overhearing the entire conversation between the brother and sister team of Shakila and Hussaini. Mahesh said jokingly – “don’t you dare to spoil your dear brother’s mood today! Just see the extent to which he has gone, how much he has been preparing, and looking forward to this – his last and final outing in cricket!” Brij added – “it’s going to be my Mamu Jaan’s day today and Pakistan will beat India hoarse, hollow, and outright!” Meanwhile, Shaloo, listening to all this talk, just couldn’t bear the thought of India losing this particular ‘prestigious’ match, and joining in the conversation, said mockingly – “even if Mamu Jaan takes the blessings of the entire household in India, nay Pakistan as well, God will see to it that my India doesn’t get defeated today!”

“Okay, okay! Everybody, listen now! Enough discussion has already taken place on the issue. Let’s not waste any more time over the matter and straightaway get into the act, by having our breakfast quickly and then settling down lest we miss any of the live coverage by Star Sports. Remember, we have specially subscribed to the channel for this occasion and only about half an hour is left before the live action begins, beamed right from Australia to so many countries around the globe including our India” – intervened Saraswati alias Shakila, suddenly taking control of the situation.

Everybody fell silent now and there was no further talk about the upcoming cricket action during breakfast time. Finally, as the clock struck exactly 09:00 hrs. IST, everyone settled down, taking their own vantage positions in front of the HD color ONIDA television set, once so much famed for its “owners’ pride, neighbor’s envy” ad.

Being a Sunday, Mahesh was off from his office work and the children too were free from their respective schools. Mahesh worked for a leading MNC in Gurgaon, travelling to and fro daily in his Honda car. While Shaloo was pursuing her studies in a central convent school and had come home specially to join her family for the match, Brij was studying in the nearby Jesus & Mary school. The school van would come daily to pick him up from home in the morning as also drop him back after school time in the afternoon.

The match had a significant sidelight too – a touch of the Indian cinema. Mr. Amitabh Bacchhan, the veteran actor well known for his versatility, and the famed anchor of the popular soap opera and Sony’s TV show – “KBC (‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’),” was making his grand debut in the commentary box, for a change this time, during the course of the match. It may be pointed out in this context that Amitabh Ji’s voice is his greatest asset and everybody, whether from India or abroad, was keenly looking forward to listen to this golden voice on the occasion. Star Sports, who had roped Amit Ji in for the event, was particularly keen on cashing upon his worldwide popularity and up the ante as far as TV ratings were concerned.

Before the match, there had been frequent calls from Shakila’s family and other near and dear ones from Pakistan all of whom were rooting for their home team and wanted Shakila alias Saraswati to fall in their footsteps and follow suit. Only Saraswati knew how tormenting all those moments had been. On one hand, she was supposed to and had to support India in the wake of her foremost relation as Mahesh’s wife and on the other, she couldn’t afford to displease her native relations too, not to speak of her role as a sister to Hussaini Bhai.

But, there was one very good point and factor working in her favor.

Mahesh knew his wife well, trusted her, and supported her through and through. Furthermore, he was not a jingoist or a cricket fanatic and was wise enough to understand not only the intricacies of the game but also the significant fact, missed by many but not him, that after all, it was only a game in which one of the two competing sides had to win and the other to lose.

Sometimes, he just brooded over and told himself that people were, by and large, foolish enough to put at stake so much for their chosen team, even going to the extent of gambling and betting heavily on the outcome. All this, he so wisely surmised, added to the ever increasing pressure on the players from both the sides and everybody else genuinely concerned about the game, which in modern times, had already acquired and taken the form of an explosive volcano, ready to erupt anywhere anytime.

He stood by his dear wife, Saraswati, often consoling and calming her down with soothing words, telling her to take all the discomfiture in her stride and that things would take their own course and everything would eventually work out well, God willing, or ‘Inshallah,’ as they say in Urdu.

Mahesh also had the good sense to realize that the game and so to say, everything in the modern world, from education down to health facilities, had become too commercialized, especially, of late, for comfort. The common man was hard put to even afford the “grand luxury” of going to a cricket stadium to watch and catch the action right in front of his eyes, not only due to the heavily priced match tickets but also taking into account the fact that as no outside food was allowed these days at the stadia, he would have to foot the bill for the highly over-priced eatables and drinks being offered and available at the match site and that too of much inferior quality in comparison to their rates.

Anyway, as he sometimes would take up and broach these topics with his wife, she would tell him to be ‘practical’ and not think too much but enjoy and, rather, relish the fun of it all, as if “any fun could be greater than humanity,” thought Mahesh although he used to keep and remain silent, accepting Saraswati’s views, but only outwardly. His inner senses were just neither willing nor ready to accept this hard reality and these harsh facts of life and he always wished he could do something about it. But, “what could he do,” all alone. He needed outside support and backing to buck him up in his mission and in this instance, his own wife was telling him in plain words to be ‘smart’ and ‘practical’ and let things go their own whacky way, whether “right or wrong,” how it mattered!

His conscience would prick him no end and he often thought and wished he could write a book and express his views and opinions openly without any fear or regret whatsoever. As of now, he had a family, may be small, but it was after all a family with a beautiful young wife and two decent kids to be taken care of and he just couldn’t afford to put their lives at stake, for the time being, at least. “All right, let me be rid of my family responsibilities and my office as well after retirement. Then, possibly, I can take a chance and would be able to write, fulfilling my cherished wish for so long!” he told himself consolingly and softly.

Back to our match, the little Indo-Pak cricket encounter. Pakistan, winning the toss, had elected to bat first on what appeared to be a paradise of a pitch for batsmen, laden with runs. And, keeping in view Hussaini Bhai’s impending retirement immediately after this significant contest, he was asked to open the innings along with Mohammed Shehzaad, a young, elegant to watch, and gifted opener. May be, the move to send Hussaini Bhai upfront was meant to take India by surprise and upset their rhythm, especially during the first ten power-play overs when only three fielders are allowed outside the inner circle. Be that as it may, Hussaini Bhai was out first ball, yorked by Umesh Yadav, the fastest bowler of the lot on the Indian side, much to the disdain of Brij but amusement for Shaloo. Shakila too was a bit upset about this particular dismissal, knowing in her heart that her brother would be even more upset about it, especially in view of his last outing in cricket.

The whole of Pakistan was stunned into silence and rubbed its eyes in disbelief. Meanwhile, Mahesh, calm and composed, as always, came forward to soothe Saraswati alias Shakila, telling her that Hussaini Bhai still had a chance to bowl well in the Indian innings, and that all was not lost as yet. Misbah-ul-Haq, the skipper of the Pakistan team, walked in next and boy, what an innings he played, simply breathtaking and out of this world! Along with Mohammed Shehzaad, the diminutive young opening batsman, he put up a bewildering partnership of one hundred eighty runs, in which his own personal contribution was a marvelous one hundred fifty runs, full of strokes all around the ground, comprising twelve fours and a towering eleven sixes, to boot.

Although he got out soon after reaching this milestone, trying to hammer another six and caught brilliantly near the boundary by Suresh Raina, who took a low tumbling catch running a good twenty yards to his left, followed almost immediately by Shehzaad, who played a rather needless rash shot in trying to up the ante even more, Pakistan reached a respectable and healthy looking score of two hundred seventy runs eventually, losing five wickets in their allotted fifty overs.

For India, Umesh Yadav took three wickets with Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin being the other two successful bowlers, bagging one wicket a piece. Suresh Raina, a part time bowler used by India, strangely turned out to be their most economical one, conceding just thirty runs off his ten overs, giving him an economy rate of three per over, which was simply stunning under any circumstances.

It was lunch time now and the whole family, Mahesh, Saraswati and the two kids – Brij and Shaloo, gathered around the dining table to enjoy the package of Daal Makhani, Rajma, cauliflower, Pulaav, Raita and Tandoori Naans, home delivered to them by the nearby “Wah Ji Wah” restaurant, especially for the occasion. Mahesh had also ordered a special candle-light dinner at the restaurant later in the day to celebrate his fifteenth wedding anniversary with Saraswati. Brij and Shaloo too were to accompany them and join in the celebration, especially as a special chocolate vegetarian cake had been ordered the previous day by Mahesh for today’s special evening. During the course of their lunch, Brij was a bit sulky while Shaloo was her usual chirpy self. Mahesh and Saraswati, on their part, tried their best to keep Brij’s spirits alive and not bring cricket into the picture or mix it up with their much needed meal, especially after three and a half hours of rigorous and continuous cricket watching on their TV monitor/screen.

After a lunch break of exactly thirty minutes, the match began again at 13:00 hrs. IST. At this stage, India were the hot favorites and expected to win, keeping its record over Pakistan straight in World Cup encounters. This was keeping in view the fact that the pitch was still batsmen friendly and benign towards them. Moreover, India had a strong batting line up with stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Anjika Rahane, and the captain cool, Mahender Singh Dhoni himself, to boot, in its ranks.

As also, the fact that it had been able to restrict Pakistan to a target well below three hundred was an additional advantage working in its favor. And, the men in blue didn’t disappoint their fans, beginning well with Rohit and Shikhar putting up a decent one hundred partnership upfront off just eleven overs. At this point, Hussaini Bhai was introduced into the attack by Pakistan skipper, Misbah. And, off his fourth ball, he had Shikhar Dhawan caught behind, off a thin edge, with a late out swinger. In his next over, he sent back Rohit Sharma too, catching him plumb in front of the wicket with a peach of a delivery, that came in just a bit, for an easy LBW decision by England’s Ian Gould, one of the two umpires doing duty in the match along with S.Venky, the one from Sri Lanka. He virtually sent the crowd, the Pakistan fans, in particular, into a tizzy, by claiming the prize wickets of Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina off his next two successive deliveries, achieving the rare feat of a hat trick in a World Cup final.

There had been no addition to the Indian score of exactly one hundred and its batting backbone had been literally broken and virtually torn to pieces, with four wickets gone already. Rahane and Dhoni tried to rev up the innings a bit, adding a crucial and vital eighty runs, before Rahane too was snapped up by Hussaini in his last and final over, not only for the match but in his cricket career as well, caught at short leg, while fending at a well directed rising bouncer on his chest. Even though Hussaini had got out for a duck while batting, he had bowling figures of 10-3-45-5 for the match, a five wicket haul anybody would be proud of and he so very rightly got a standing ovation from the supporting crowd as he finished his quota. Whatever the result of the match, he was relieved now that he had after all done justice to his last game of cricket. In fact, he had made his retirement a memorable occasion, an occasion he could remember with pride and recite to his probable future grandchildren.

It was anybody’s game now with exactly ninety one runs to get off the final ten overs for India while Pakistan was looking to finish off things quickly and wrap up the remaining five Indian wickets as well. But, its main concern was that its star performer of the day, Hussaini Bhai, at least with the ball, accounting for all the five wickets that had fallen so far, had already bowled out his full quota of ten overs at a stretch. India, on the other hand, was relying on Dhoni single-handedly now to apply the finishing touches and get the required runs at an asking rate of almost nine runs per over, which he was perfectly capable of doing. But, knowing that it was a crunch match, a big pressure game, nobody on either side, was yet ready to take any chances and predict the outcome. But, one thing was for sure. Whichever side doesn’t wilt under pressure and choke down, would be the winner.

Moreover, it was no longer a game to watch for the faint hearted ones. For Pakistan, Junaid Khan and Yusuf Parvez, the two of their fastest bowlers, had to bowl the final ten overs in tandem now while Ravindra Jadeja, a promising young all-rounder (left arm leg spin bowler who could bat as well) was giving Dhoni company at the other end. Both Jadeja and Dhoni were fast movers between wickets and played for the same franchise – Chennai Super Kings, in the IPL (Indian Premier League), a 20–20 or T-20 cricket tournament in which only twenty overs a side are bowled instead of the usual fifty as in one day cricket.

Pakistan did well in the first six overs, restricting India to just twenty five runs. Dhoni and Jadeja tried hard but found the duo of Junaid and Yusuf difficult to get away as they bowled a tidy line and length and at a good pace too, sometimes in the vicinity of one hundred fifty kilometers per hour. Be that as it may, they had no option left but to play in the T-20 mould now, if they were to get the remaining sixty six runs in the four overs left for the day. Nobody was giving them even a semblance of a chance or counting on them to even get anywhere close to the target, leave alone achieving it!

But, M.S. Dhoni had other ideas. He started off with his famed helicopter shot for six over mid-wicket in Junaid’s next over, followed it up with a crunchy straight drive for four off a full length yorker, a shot which only he could play, and then cover drove him, playing inside out for a massive six over the extra cover fence. With sixteen runs off the first three balls of the over, the crowd was on its feet yet again. As he took a comfortable single off the next ball, it was Jadeja’ s turn now to take over and hit the remaining two balls for successive boundaries, one a square cut that sped towards the point fence in the twinkling of an eye, and the other, a delicate leg glance to the fine leg boundary.

It had turned out to be a very good over for India, with as many as twenty five runs coming off it, in all. But, it still required forty one more in the next three overs, by no means, an easy task. Dhoni, once again, didn’t disappoint his fans, by hitting three massive hefty shots for the maximum, over long on, long off, and straight over the bowler Parvez’s head, off the first three deliveries in the next over, the forty eighth of the innings. Young Parvez completely lost his line, rhythm and length, and just didn’t know where to bowl to the Indian captain. To add to his woes, he bowled a wide no-ball next. Two runs were added to the score and a free hit was awarded to the batting side, viz. the Indians.

Although Dhoni could manage only a couple of runs off the free hit, hitting the full toss bowled straight into the hands of the fielder at deep midwicket, viz. Shehzaad, he reverse swept the next two balls for successive fours as if he was facing a spinner instead of a fast bowler. Thirty runs had come in the over bowled.

With just eleven to get in the remaining two final overs of the innings, the game had again turned around and come full circle in India’s favor. However, the ever cool Dhoni got out in Junaid’s final over, trying to repeat his favorite helicopter shot, which he had been able to play successfully off the first ball in the bowler’s previous over. It was neither needed nor called for at this stage of the game, when they could easily do it in singles and two’s.

It was rather uncharacteristic and unlike Dhoni’s calm approach, disposition, and temperament. But, the damage had been done and Pakistan allowed more than a glimmer of hope. May be, the first two dot balls off which Dhoni had been unable to get any runs, had got to his head. Dhoni had got out to the third ball of the over and the batsmen had crossed while the catch was being taken. Jadeja was in the hot seat now. And, just like Dhoni, he played out the first two balls he faced as dots and couldn’t make any use of them. He stepped out to the final ball of the over, trying to play a hefty cover drive, only to see his middle stump cart wheeling and flying off the ground.

India had lost another vital and crucial wicket again, this time of Ravindra Jadeja. Junaid’s final over had turned out to be double wicket maiden one and he was virtually on the moon, clapping and celebrating with his team mates with high fives all around. Everybody was on his toes now for the final over of the Indian innings to be bowled by Yusuf Parvez, the upcoming young fast bowler from Peshawar. At this juncture, India still needed eleven runs to win with just three wickets intact. Pakistan needed to bowl out the final over for less than ten runs to win.

A distinct third possibility had also come into the picture. And, that was India getting no more than ten runs off the six balls it was to face, resulting in a ‘tie,’ or a drawn battle, so to say. Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami were the two Indian batsmen at the crease now to take them through with Shami at the non-striker’s end. Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma, in that order, were awaiting their turn to bat, if required, in the pavilion.

The first ball – a bouncer over the middle stump! No runs! Ashwin looked at S.Venky, the umpire officiating at the bowler’s end, appealingly for a no ball for extra height above the batsman’s shoulders, but there had been no signal from the square leg umpire, Ian Gould, and Venky simply signaled one bouncer, for the over. The second – a slightly wide full toss had Ashwin groping for it and flew to third man for a single. Mohammed Shami on strike now! The equation – ten to get off four balls!!

The third ball by Parvez was a full length yorker, dug out somehow by Shami, and they stole a cheeky single! The equation – nine to get off three!! The fourth, a short one, was pulled fiercely by Ashwin to the mid-wicket fence for a welcome boundary for his team! Ashwin had proved his batting credentials time and again for India and this was no different! The equation – five to get off two!!

The next ball, the fifth, was a quick good length one, and they ran an even quicker single like two hares running for their very lives!

The equation – four to get off just one ball!! Oh, my, my goodness me, it was all topsy-turvy and could swing either way, although Pakistan seemed to have a slight edge at this point of the game. But, nothing can be said in cricket till the final ball is bowled!

The final ball of the over and the innings was a fierce yorker by Yusuf Parvez, the young lad from Peshawar, who was learning all the time and had bowled a great last over. Mohammed Shami knew nothing about it; Ashwin was already half way down the pitch, screaming out to Shami to run; meanwhile, the wicketkeeper, Yaseen Jaffer, had thrown the ball to the bowler’s end but there was no one backing up; Shami started to run; the ball was stopped near mid-off by Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan skipper, who threw it wildly to the batsman’s end, trying to run out Ashwin; both the batsmen reached their respective ends safely and tried to run the second as well and managing it too; the throw was so wild that it caught all the Pakistan fielders napping and unawares, going to the fine third man boundary and crossing the fence for four overthrows; while India needed four runs off this particular ball, they had been allowed six, much to the chagrin of the Pakistan team, and Parvez, in particular, who had done nothing wrong in this over.

In the end, it had been a comedy of errors, of a sort. But, eventually, it was India who had kept their nerves and done the needful, beating Pakistan by three wickets, with its final score reading two hundred seventy three for seven. Of course, it was helped by the Pakistan fielding in the final over; but all said and done it had ultimately and finally prevailed over Pakistan in what had been a hard fought, pulsating and nail biting game of cricket.

Meanwhile, the much talked about and the much hyped over Amitabh’s stint at the commentary box had come a cropper. It simply had to. After all, everybody can’t do everything. Acting is one thing. But performing in reality is a different ball game altogether. If Amitabh Ji had to act out the role of a commentator in a film, it would have been a virtual cakewalk for him. But, describing live action and moreover a game like cricket with all its buzzwords and peculiar jargon is only a job for professional commentators. Some of the ex-players too have made a good job of it. On his part, Amit Ji were graceful enough to quit right in the beginning itself and fellow commentators on Star Sports (Hindi commentary team) eased him out quickly lest it became an embarrassment both for Mr. Bacchhan and Star Sports. Anyway, most of the audience didn’t complain and accepted the walkout gracefully. May be, they already had a lurking idea that it would be a tough endeavor for Amit Ji to carry out.

Moreover, you can’t become a cricket commentator straightaway. You need time and graduate gradually from local matches to regional ones onto national level and finally arrive at the international level. You see, it’s a step by step gradual process. The only exception to this general rule could be ex-players who have played cricket at some level or the other. But, even here, everybody doesn’t succeed and turn out to be a good commentator. Rohan Gavaskar, the illustrious Sunil Gavaskar’s son, is a very good case in point with no ill-will towards anybody, especially the latter, who by all means, is an excellent TV cricket commentator himself.

Before moving on to the two flashbacks from the lives of Mahesh and Saraswati alias Shakila, just a little word about their fifteenth wedding anniversary together, the T-20 format of cricket, and the IPL.

The couple solemnly celebrated their much wonted anniversary in the evening along with their two loving kids, Brij and Shaloo. First, they feasted upon the aforementioned specially ordered chocolate cake and followed it up by whetting their appetite to the maximum on the candle lit dinner, which had several courses, of course, all of them purely vegetarian and only soft drinks and fresh fruit juices.

Coming to the T-20 format now; while, the reduced number of overs makes the game finish within three hours and the spectators get to watch all their favorite players in one go as also the outcome, we shall also have to say that the T-20 format of cricket suits the batsmen more than the bowlers, who are just left hapless and literally at the mercy of the former. Another valid point is that from a pure connoisseur’s point of view, T-20 is a very poor format and it has adversely affected (of course, along with one day cricket to a lesser extent, though) Test cricket too, which sometime back was his sublime delight.

Before I round off this first part of the story and the narration, a word about T-20 tourneys like IPL. On the negative side, they have commercialized the game no end. But, the positive point is that many youngsters get to play with their seniors, not to speak of some of their role models as well, as also earn some decent money in the process.

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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So You've Made a Game. Now What?

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

So You've Made a Game. Now What?

You're game is almost Alpha. You've slogged through months of making and building, and now you're in the home stretch with the finish line in sight. You plan on spending the next few months polishing and tweaking and balancing your latest masterpiece, before pushing it out to the world and making your fortune. Well, not quite. There's quite a bit more to be done. In fact, a whole new world is just being revealed to you, as you Google about marketing, PR, community building, and publishing. You've read the post mortems, heard the horror stories, and watched the GDC videos, of games collapsing in the last few months of dev, or disappearing into the abyss on release, through lack of exposure or apathy. And now you're sitting there, worried about your extraordinary creation, something you've poured months of creativity and energy into. A slow dread is spreading in your belly. A fear that your game will just, well, fizzle.

There's so much to do! And if you're like me, you have your limitations. A certain level of honesty is needed, particularly around the realities of the situation, and the ever looming end of the project. We all have our various skills, and we're all good at what we do, but no one is an expert in all things. For example, I'm a programmer first and foremost, and I can turn my hand to a range of other things in a push (apart from art, I'm crap at art), but biz dev, marketing, PR, and community building? Nah, those have always been a bit of a mystery, and something I've historically ignored till the last minute, and then done a half-assed job with, once I actually force myself to do it. It's just not a very interesting part of the game dev process to me, and I'm sure most of you will agree. The Marketing nerds won't of course.

Looking wider to the rest of the team, my guess is that you're running lean and mean and have only the skills you need to build the game, represented in your motley crew. Small, scrappy, indie dev teams are typically made up of the bare talent/skills needed to get the game made. A programmer, an artist, a designer, a musician (if you're lucky), and a producer(if you're unlucky (I kid, I kid, I love Producers)), and even those roles are usually covered by a single person. Fact is, if you're running your project on a shoestring, which is typical, you're probably all in and already relying on the kindness of others to get the work done. Finding money for professional help with the nitty gritty part of actually bringing the game to a ready audience, can be challenging. The temptation is to bumble through and do it yourself. This can be a tough proposition if marketing isn't your bag or what you do. And it's not just the marketing. There's PR which entails leaving your dark cave-of-an-office and talking to other Humans (shudder). There are contracts and NDAs, and other legal paperwork to wrangle and navigate. There are events and interviews to schedule. Money to be raised. A million little and big things to do once your done building the game. You cannot discount the value of experts and professionals.

Marketing and business dev are not high on the list of requirements at the start of a project, and only really gets any attention towards the end. Finding a publisher can help with a whole range of problems that a small indie dev can face and struggle with. Marketing / PR, advertising, events, distribution, funding, production support, etc. etc. That's great, but all that comes at a cost. Publishers will take their cut, and depending on your track record, that cut can be the lions share. Then you factor in the piece that Steam or other distribution platforms take, and you could end up with not a lot for your years of toil. Of course, a good publisher can take your game to the next level, and a smaller slice of a bigger pie, is still better than a big slice of a tiny pie. Mmmm, I like pie. Anyway, a good publisher can bring a lot of value to the table, so it's definitely a route that should be considered, provided the math works.

Alternatively, you can self publish. You can cobble a plan together, run a Kickstarter, tap you network of friends to spread the word, pester sites and Youtuber's to give you some coverage, and cross your fingers. Maybe you can throw a bit of money at it. Maybe you'll get lucky. The problem with this approach, is failure. Basically. Effective marketing of your finished game is potentially one of the most critical parts of making it.

To be clear this article doesn't favor self publishing over a traditional publisher, or vice versa. Get a publisher or self publish. It just has to make sense for your situation and needs. There are lots of pros and cons for both routes. The rest of this article is really just a bunch of notes and thoughts about what I've found out the past few months looking into this whole subject. You know, being as my game is just about Alpha.. Gulp.

So, to self publish or find a publisher?

This is a big question ..

Is it worth giving up a piece of your game to get “professional” help with this stuff? Everyone making a game for profit, needs to sit down and talk about this stuff honestly. Weigh up the benefits versus the costs. Is it better to own 70% of something that does kind of crappy, or 20% of something that does a lot better? Of course, you don't necessarily need to give up a piece of your game to get professional help. You just need money. Because professionals like to get paid.

Publisher vs Partner

There is a distinction. A Partnership, rather than just a straight publishing deal, will have additional intangibles, such as; Enthusiasm, creativity and investment (beyond financial) for the game, across all aspects of the game, including marketing, distribution, and production. A partnership usually comes from trust and credibility, built over multiple projects and consistent, mutual success. Having a publisher who actually cares and works with you to make the best game you can, is something we can all hope for.

Desirable Publisher Traits

"Stage and Spotlight". Ideally, the publisher should put the developer and game front and center. The publisher should take a back seat and promote the developer and game, and not take credit or push themselves ahead of the game and developer. The game and developer is the star here. The publisher should be an ambassador for the game and developer.

"Personal Relationship". It's about accessibility. How responsive and available is the publisher? Do you have a dedicated "handler" or account manager or contact to work with? Is there a lot of "churn"? Do you speak with a different person every time you interact with them? Understand who does what and what the structure is at the publisher. Know who can make things happen and get stuff done. It really helps if you like the people doing the work, and the "culture" of the publisher. Do they have your interests at heart and will they have your back in a knife fight?

"Honesty and Realism". Everyone involved must be able to talk frankly and not pull punches about money, deadlines and anything that could impact any aspect of the game. Both sides have to be able to ask and answer questions with transparency. Money is important. It's the thing that makes the relationship work. Where is the money coming from and where is it going? How is it distributed and paid out?

Wooing a publisher is a serious business. It's no joke. There's money and reputation at stake, so take it seriously, and be scrupulous in the detail. As a developer approaching a possible publisher, it is your responsibility to research the publisher's body of work and reputation. Educate yourself before talking to anyone. Check out their website, Youtube channel, Metacritic scores, buzz and feedback. How have they been successful, and how can that be applied to your game.

Once you are talking seriously to a publisher, ask for references (yes you can do that). Talk to developers that are already in the publisher's portfolio. Not just the successful ones. How did the publisher deal with a developer/game that wasn't performing well? This will tell you a lot about how a publisher treats a developer or behaves when things aren’t quite so rosy.

Questions to Ask a Publisher

Simple question.. How will you make us more money than if we did this ourselves?

Not everything a publisher can offer will be of interest to you or relevant to your situation. You may be fully funded already. You may just need access to a specific platform. You may desperately need money to keep the lights on, or help with paperwork.

These are things to consider, and questions you should ask a potential publisher before committing ink to paper.

Marketing / PR - Advertising, Events and Community.

What can the publisher offer? What are their capabilities? What resources do they have? Do they have a team? Where are they based? Do they specialize in a particular country? Where will the game be marketed (countries/regions)? Can they speak the language in that market? Do they understand the nuances of the country/region? How will they market the game? Ask for examples of previous campaigns for other games. Do they include streamers and Youtubers? How about Social Media? How about community building and management? What is a typical budget or spend on a marketing campaign? How will it be spent? How will the cost be recouped? Do they go to events? Worldwide? Look at their track record and how they have supported other games.

Distribution - Channels, Digital, Retail, Merchandising and Events.

This is mostly about access. Steam, PSN, XBox. Placement on storefronts, inclusion in promos, merchandising. What access and relationship does the publisher have with the various distribution channels? Do your own research. Look at the publisher's catalog. Where does your game fit? Is there opportunity for cross-promotion or "synergy" with their other products?

Funding - Money for Development

How much do you need and when do you need it? Be specific and clear, as contracts don't get a "redo". How much will the money actually cost you, both short and long term. Going back to your publisher for more money after the fact will only weaken your position and will probably mean you have to give something else up in return. Modifying an agreement can be difficult and expensive.

Production - Testing, Audio, Localization,Voiceover, Video Production, etc.

Are the production services part of the deal? These are real costs to the publisher, so what are they, and how are the costs recouped? What level of expertise does the publisher have in the services they offer? Who do they contract out to? Do you have direct contact with them or are they a walled garden?

Additional Notes / Thoughts

When negotiating an agreement, do not settle for wishy-washy answers, or assume anything. If there's something that isn't clear or understood, ask for clarity and for it to be explained in excruciating detail. Ask for examples. Understand how the money works. How it flows in and out. How the accounting works and pay schedules are structured. Understand any caveats and clauses that affect the money. How are publisher costs recouped? What are considered "costs"? When will they be recouped (schedule)? There are no stupid questions, only sad and broken developers.

Sustainability. Know the health of your publisher. Who funds the publisher? Who pays them? Pay attention and anticipate potential problems. Understand risks and have a "Plan B". Plan for the future and position yourself for the future. Understand your requirements on the money side. Payments take time to filter through the system. Plan for your next project.

Communication with a publisher/partner is super important. Communicate regularly and early. Try to avoid surprises, and don't ignore important stuff. If something isn't clear, make it clear. Know who makes the decisions.

IP and ownership should be really important to you as a developer.. The game is your baby and the IP is its soul. IP is your most valuable asset, long term. Do not sell the IP. Do not make it part of any agreement. Think about the future and sequels and additional games based on the IP. Does the publisher have any interest longer term? Are there any exclusivity clauses written in that would prevent you developing your IP elsewhere? How is the IP positioned, promoted and messaged by the publisher to the world? The IP isn't just the game. It's ANY other opportunity that comes out of the idea, be it books, t-shirts, comic books, "plushies", trading cards, movies, anything. Ownership is control.

There are lots of publishers and lots of promises. Understand your publisher (know everything). Stay in charge. Drive the deal and keep control of the game and IP. They need you more than you need them, because you can always self-publish if the deal is bad.

Make sure your personal agreements with your team and partners are squared away and very clear. What is your company structure and ownership? How is money distributed? Understand disbursement schedules, accounting, and the legal stuff. How are contractors managed and paid? How are the accounts kept and expenses tracked? Contracts are important. No handshakes and vagaries.

General Marketing / PR Notes

If you self publish, consider hiring a PR person or marketing firm to help. Marketing and PR is hard and is a full time job. That is a hard truth and reality. There are people out there who will work for a reasonable fee, and give you a "leg up". Even a simple, but professionally thought-out plan and timeline would be a huge help and guide for most people.

Social Media - Facebook is useless. Twitter is better. Reddit is perilous and you must play by their rules or be punished. Generally, it is better to use Social Media as a funnel to your company or game website. Build your community around your own site if possible. You will also keep ownership of your content that way.

Website / Blog - Most people build a site for the game and promote that. The game is, after all, the point here. Once you have a few games, it makes sense to gather them under a company site. Making websites and promoting community around them is a fairly big job, so spend your time wisely. Have a "Press Kit" available. It should contain everything a would-be game journalist would need to put a pieces about your game together. Write an "Elevator Pitch", a couple of sentences that says exactly what the game is about. Make some short pieces of copy that can be copy/pasted into a blog or review. Have various quality and sizes of promotional screenshots, renders and videos available.

Have a mailing list sign up, Stay in touch and engage your followers/community regularly. Cross post to social media, providing links to get people back to your site. Get on Indie game dev and player community forums and get involved with their communities. Get involved with communities interested in your genre of game. Once you have the beginnings of a community around the game, consider hiring a fulltime community manager, because running it is a lot of work.

Game Press - Reach out with email etc. Follow on Twitter and interact. Email announcements and press releases. A Marketing / PR person can be super helpful here, particularly if they are well connected.

Mainstream Press - Consider other angles for the game that may be interesting to other, non-game media. Radio, TV, print. Does the game feature a place or a time that has interest outside the game? Is it socially/environmentally conscious? Does it make a political or topical statement?

Youtube - Youtube is an important part of marketing your game. "Big List of Youtubers" . http://ift.tt/1fXbOy9 - Find influencers interested in your genre and communicate. Early access to game etc.

Twitch - Twitch is all about games (and cam girls), but mostly games. Twitch recently announced plans to add a sales platform as part of Twitch streamer's channel. This has great possibilities for developers, and opportunities for streamers, so know your Twitch streamers and identify the ones who may be interested in your genre of game.

Expos and Shows - Consider a demo level that shows the game off in isolation. Controller is a must. People just want to pick up and play. If the game is too involved or not right for an expo, don't waste your money. Unless you just want to hang out and party with super cool people.

Kickstarter - Use as part of a marketing strategy. Build a mailing list. Build an audience. Build a special demo level for backers to play. Offer the same demo for general download on the game website, later on. Add manageable and affordable rewards and stretch goals. Keep away from physical good, like t-shirts and books and figurines. While these things are super cool, they are expensive and time consuming to package and mail to backers. Try and keep your rewards digital, like soundtrack download and bonus music track, digital art portfolio, backers credit roll and “Hall of Heroes” in the game.

And Finally

For multiplatform launch, have a distinct "story" tailored to each audience. Know what the PC audience expects, and know what the PS4/XBox audience expects, and pander to them directly. There are different expectations on each platform. This extends to UI/UX for each platform.

Ads don't really work. Not an effective form of communication. People block/ignore ads. Exception is to announce something "important" like a sale, or a major update.

Stay engaged with community. Reviews and ratings are important. Consider "trading cards" and achievements for Steam.

Localize the game to support other languages. French, German and Spanish.. Watch your metrics and see where your game is being played.

Good luck!

PS. You can check out my new game (I'm almost at Alpha), right here..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JuHqzt4lBY

#IFTTT #Blogger

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purplepeanutcheesecake-blog · 7 years

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It has been just over a year since the day we took the leap and moved to London. So far it’s been a great journey and we have done so many things, some planned, other spontaneous and completely unexpected! To see what we have done from our London list just check out our old blog <<Things to do in London: Our Lists>>and whatever has been marked in red is what we have managed to do. This blog is going to be about all the things that happened that weren’t on that list.

The first Steps

When planning to come to England we had originally planned to go to Barnsley, as we had friends living there with jobs waiting for us. That, however, didn’t happen and with our tickets and bags packed we flew to London, where we would stay with other friends, who had just rented a flat and were more than happy to give us a place to stay until we sorted ourselves out. We slept on a very comfortable floor in their living room while looking for jobs and a place to live. It took us a month…So big thanks to Mike and Taylor who put up with us! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Our flat in Acton Town

We eventually found a small flat on the third floor on a quiet street in Acton Town. Three bedroomed with one bathroom, a kitchen and a tiny extra room and a shared garden. A couple from Spain were already living in one of the rooms when we moved in. Today they are more than housemates…they are now our koumbaros ( to be)! We never knew what to expect from house sharing, especially Pantelis who had never done it before. Sometimes I think that if it wasn’t for these guys we wouldn’t have stuck it out for so long. It is so hard to find the time to meet people and friends as everyone’s schedule varies, it can make London a lonely place to be. Having friends to come home to has been a blessing!The third room was eventually occupied by Felicity, a Kiwi who’s character reminds me of Fibi from friends! Although she left us when her contract run out we haven’t let her go and we usually see each other whenever there is a party going down. Her room is now taken by Rhys a young English lad that knows more about Greek Mythology than I do! As usual, most people we meet are invited to visit us in Greece and so the Spanish koumbaros took us up on our word and paid us a visit when we ourselves had popped home for a couple of weeks! Soon it will be our turn to visit Spain!!!

View of the garden from our kitchen Window

Our extra mini living room!

View from our bedroom!

Our bedroom!

The street we live on!

Our kitchen!

Finding work

My first job was in retail on one of the busiest streets in Europe. I worked for 3 months in oxford circus and it was manic! I threw myself into the deep end by training to be floor manager as someone had seen potential in me. It was the Christmas period and didn’t have time to get into the Christmas spirit as the speed of London life started to kick in. I decided it wasn’t for me. I longed to be a part of a team where I felt equal, where people weren’t just numbers and where I could look forward to going to work. Plus I was in London…here I could go for my dreams! I found a job in a tiny coffee shop on the underground station where I live. It was a few minutes walk from home and the atmosphere seemed really friendly. The Apple Tree is where I am currently working! It has been a great experience as the owner and staff have always been supportive and therefore I have always been able to go for auditions and various classes.Meanwhile, I have been learning the trades of the business as this would be an ideal family business to set up back in Greece.

Work with the Boss!

Christmas time with my girls in The Apple Tree!

With Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu

Taking up classes

I miss being a student. I love learning and continuously challenging myself. In London, there is no excuse for not developing and growing your knowledge as there are classes, seminars and workshops on almost anything you can imagine! Having had some singing experience I decided I wanted to learn properly from the beginning so I completed a six-week course on Singing for Beginners with London City Academy. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would have gone straight for the next one, however, I needed to save money for them and by the time I had, I had met an Actor (in the coffee shop funnily enough) who ran his own classes. So my next lessons would be on Advanced Acting for Film and Tv with Totally Lit. I completed this course right before Christmas and although I had hoped for more doors to have opened I still thoroughly enjoyed each lesson as we had a great group of people and sometimes all you need is to be around people with similar dreams and aspirations to be inspired and motivated! Since these classes, I have gone back to singing lessons as I have managed to find work as a singer in the past and therefore this could be more of an investment. However, I have them privately with a very talented young singer whom I met after we both applied to be in a girl band. Nothing came of the band but I gained a new friend and a great teacher, Tamsyn Miller or else known as Chess Countess!

The auditions

Yes, this is the City of opportunity and sometimes it feels great just to be surrounded by it! Other times you realise that so many people have moved here for the same reasons! The competition is high! Nobody really tells you what you should do if you want to <<make it>>. There is no particular system or structure. All the success stories vary so you have to find your own way.While applying for various things I managed to get some time on set as an extra. In fact, I even managed to persuade Pantelis to come along with me one day and Atenea (Spanish housemate) another! I was so happy Pantelis got to see the inside of the world I would love to be in! The world of film! Amongst all the real auditions there are fake ones…Scams, companies that make you believe you are special and great and then ask for money for you to get this <<job>> or for you to be on their books. I have had the pleasure of being a part of a few projects for a film student, Oriane , a promising cinematographer who intends to make powerful work. Other than that I can’t say I have been greatly successful but I can’t say I failed either because I tried and I will keep trying, one way or another!

Atenea and I with the girls we met on set!

Matching outfits!

Chilling on set!

Enjoy the sun and movie making!

The shows/ catching up with friends.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most has been seeing familiar faces from back in the uni days! I had a chance to catch up with Melissa who is a bloody hilarious and talented young woman! Seriously, watch out here she comes! Her shows are entertaining and yet thought provoking. I managed to watch her show Something Borrowed before it went to the Edinburgh fringe festival! We had also been to watch a show together called Free Admission by Ursula Martinez. Pantelis joined me on an evening of shows performed by various companies at a venue called Slam. One of the performers was my friend Richard Staplehurst who had written a spoken word piece. In the same year at uni as Richard and I, was Ness who had her birthday last year in a pub that had a stand-up comedy show! A few good laughs, a few good drinks and friends, is the recipe for a great night! Just before Christmas, I had booked a show to take a couple of our friends we had staying from Greece. A modern kind of panto by the Sleeping Trees called Scrooge and the seven dwarves. This is an award-winning theatre company created by a group of guys that went to the same Uni as me, just a couple of years below me! They are geniuses and if you can ever watch a show of theirs do!!! When my sister had paid us a visit with Vasilis we went to watch the Lion King! !WOW ! Brilliant performance!!! The music, the dancing the characters were exactly how they are in the movie, only better as they were standing right in front of you! It was amazing to see what beautiful visual imagery people can create with their dancing the stage settings and music! One of the other things I managed to do was watch one of my favourite Tv shows on stage! Who’s Line is it Anyway? With a few of the well-known actors that would appear on the Tv show and Clive Anderson as host! Felicity and I had a blast as we watched the much-loved improvisation games take place right before our eyes! Talking about Tv shows, I was an audience member recently, thanks to my friend Stephanie, at the Graham Norton show with his guests being Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Felicity Jones, Dawn French and Sir Michael Parkinson!

Happy faces!

The stage waiting for its perfomers! Who’s line is it anyway?

Travel

Pantelis and I travelled for the first time together when we came to England in 2014 for Katies’ and Jamies’ wedding. We managed to visit a few friends, spread across the Uk and therefore did the site seeing on the way. We had never actually been on holiday though. So in 2016 we booked our first one together, to Malta. We had a rough start as we turned up to an apartment that hadn’t even been cleaned and was covered in damp and mould. We didn’t let this take up too much of our time and we found another place to stay. I will leave the video to do the rest of the talking.

For Pantelis’s birthday on the 21st of November 2016, I had bought him a small suitcase and inside tickets to Copenhagen /Denmark. (A short video will be uploaded soon). It was only a two day trip in January. So we had something to look forward to at the beginning of the year. If I would make any resolutions for the new year it would be, travel more, learn more and finally meet my brother (but that is another story).

Living in London has been a great experience. I feel I have grown so much within this year! I would recommend a year in London to anyone who wants to experience the City life and everything that goes with it! Do I miss home? Of course, I do! Just like Dorothy from the wizard of Oz says <<There is no place like home>>. I would stay here only to stock up on experiences I could not get at home. I believe once we have had our fill we will happily move back to Greece. Being around family and friends has become even more valuable to me over the past year. It could take another year, it could take one more month we don’t know. What we do know is that we are both thankful for being able to live this experience, to go for our dreams, to try new things, for having each other and great families who support us!

As always we are late posting this blog as it was meant for before Christmas! His side of the story is going to be even later as usual!

P.S Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

A year In the City It has been just over a year since the day we took the leap and moved to London.

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