This week at Bungie, we had to fix the timeline . . . again.

Fronktaline

To invest or to donate? That is the question the community has been pondering since the Empyrean Foundation event began last week. Many in the community are recommending that players keep investing in Obelisks, but we’re seeing a steady rise in donations as players have already hit stage five. We’ve also received reports from Spider that this economic stimulus has been great for his business.

Here is a look at current Fractaline donation tracking as of noon PST.

Billions of Fractaline have been donated, but you have billions more to go to reach stage seven and unlock the final Triumph for the Savior Seal.

An Affinity for You

When we introduced Armor 2.0 with Shadowkeep last fall, we got a lot of feedback on the new armor system – specifically pertaining to Elemental Affinities. Many of you have been asking for the ability to change Elemental Affinity types on armor. We’ll be adding the ability to do this starting next Season.

You’ll soon be able to change the Elemental Affinity on any piece of armor to either of the other two Affinity types directly from the item’s inspection screen by hovering your cursor over the armor’s energy icon. This is intended to mitigate the experience of getting an armor drop with a stat roll you want, but the wrong Elemental Affinity. Changing an armor Affinity type will cost 1 Upgrade Module. If your armor is already upgraded to a higher energy level, the cost will be the total upgrade materials necessary to reach that energy value plus 1 Upgrade Module.

Seasonal Mods

We also received a lot of suggestions on how to improve Seasonal mods. Starting next Season, the Seasonal armor mod socket (e.g. Undying Mods, Dawn Mods) will also be able to use mods released during the Seasons before and after the armor piece was released.

For example, armor with a mod socket from Season of Dawn can now equip Dawn Mods, Undying Mods from Season of the Undying, and [Redacted] Mods (from Season of [Redacted])

Iron Banner

As Crimson Days comes to a close, Lord Saladin will arrive just in time to fill the hole in the heart of a less decorated Tower. Red flowers will be replaced with a burning shield as the last Iron Banner of this Season kicks off next week.

Iron Banner and Valor Bonus

Start: 9 AM PST on February 18

End: 9 AM PST on February 25

This is your last shot to finish your Iron Banner quest this Season and pick up any pinnacle rewards from Iron Banner bounties. Equip your best gear and control those zones!

GROUNDHOG DAY

Player Support is the first to field reports of issues in the game. The Help forum is the best way to throw up signal flares if you suspect something is awry.

This is their report.

HOTFIXES AND ROLLING BACK ACCOUNTS

After Hotfix 2.7.1.1 went live on Tuesday, the Player Support team started receiving reports of players missing their Destiny 2 materials and currencies, again. We alerted the rest of the development teams about the issue and the decision was made to immediately take the game down to prevent more players from being affected. Around 4 PM PST, we finished rolling back player accounts and brought the game back online.

Earlier today, we released Hotfix 2.7.1.2 which included a server code fix to prevent currencies and materials from disappearing again, as well as a fix for the infinite Dawnblade Super issue.

BOND, CRIMSON BOND

Lord Shaxx has decorated the Tower and brought Crimson Days back to the Crucible. Along with a partner, you can forge a Crimson Bond with them in the Crimson Days Doubles playlist, earn Confectionary Hearts, and purchase unique rewards. The event will end at the weekly reset on February 18.

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

• Players who completed quests or lost progress, gear, or weapons between 8:30 and 10:30 AM PST on Tuesday, February 11, will have to complete or earn them again due to our account rollback.
• The “Fire of the Crimson Days” emblem can’t be accepted if it’s already your inventory. Delete the emblem and accept the new one to continue.
• Unearned/unclaimed Crimson Days triumphs will be removed when Crimson Days ends and won’t be able to be claimed afterward.
• Players having trouble collecting their Undeterred, SVC-12, or IVC-10 Sparrows need to make room in their Sparrows and Consumables inventory to receive them.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Best Picture

Our movie awards may not have all of the pomp and circumstance of the Oscars, but dmg04 always dresses up when he picks the winners. Also, you don’t have to wait a year for more Movies of the Week. So that’s a bonus. Anyway, our award process is pretty simple – we pick our favorite community-made videos and the winners get an emblem. Just please make sure you include your Bungie.net profile link in the description of the video if you win.

Movie of the Week: Little Legend

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBSmgDKXFM?wmode=transparent&rel=0&fs=1&w=1136&h=641]

Honorable Mention: I got a Fever

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ordj3hmn08w?wmode=transparent&rel=0&fs=1&w=1136&h=641]

Hard to believe we only have one month left in Season of Dawn. If you’re planning on getting the title before the end of the Season, make sure you start finishing up any Triumphs you need. Looking at the numbers, the community should be unlocking the Empyrean Foundation Triumph soon.

<3 Cozmo

Remember that only those on Xbox One / Windows 10 / and Android may participate in the Beta builds.  You will not be able to join Realms or non-beta players worlds and you will not be able to open worlds opened in the Beta in earlier/current stable builds of Bedrock.

Parity:

• Observer blocks no longer immediately detect a state change when placed

 For Map Makers and Add-On Creators:

• Item sprites are now data-driven
• The Drowned mobs are now data-driven

• Crashes/Performance
  
  • Fixed several crashes that could occur during gameplay
  • Optimized key frame animation playback
  • Optimized performance when breaking lots of Kelp plants

• Accessibility
  
  • The text-to-speech reader now reads URLs properly

• General
  
  • Lingering and Splash Potion particles now stay within their boundaries when in a confined space
  • Fixed a bug that prevented repeating and chain Command Blocks from being opened (MCPE-63252)
  • Cakes now have the correct texture states when partially eaten (MCPE-14757)

• Gameplay
  
  • Fixed an issue that would cause a ‘phantom’ water block to appear when placing water on a fire near a sponge block (MCPE-57063)
  • Fixed an issue where water from bubble columns could not be collected (MCPE-37571)
  • Stacked mine carts that occupy the same space will now load and unload as expected (MCPE-54244)
  • Walking on scaffolding now makes correct sounds (MCPE-53279)

• Mobs
  
  • Mobs now consistently take damage when spawning on magma blocks (MCPE-47518)

• Graphical
  
  • Fixed an issue that would cause armour to unexpectedly render on mobs when being held in its hand

• Add-Ons
  
  • Custom entities that use the runtime identifier field now use the custom entity’s name rather than the vanilla entity’s name (MCPE-56229)
  • Dispensed splash and lingering potions now have potion effects in their projectile component
  • Fixed collision box not updating from script
  • The “damage_sensor” component will now work on non-Mob actors (such as Ender Crystals)
  • A mob spawned in the air will no longer think it’s on the ground once its movement is ticked

• Character Creator
  
  • Fixed an issue that meant some character creator selections would not be saved between sessions (MCPE-32089)

The 2020 Game Developers Conference will feature an exhibition called Alt.Ctrl.GDC dedicated to games that use alternative control schemes and interactions. Gamasutra will be talking to the developers of each of the games that have been selected for the showcase.

Cursed! is a game of competitive magic potion making, with players battling for the spellbook and cauldron in order to cure themselves of some nasty afflictions.

Gamasutra sat down with the developers of Cursed!, Yufei Zhang and Yating Wu, to learn about the thoughts that went into making potion brewing into a competitive affair, how they worked to make potion-making as straightforward as possible, and in communicating gameplay through the look of the controller alone.

The name of the group is WeHaveNoCat. Yufei is the illustrator, visual designer, and programmer of this game. Yating is the engineer and the fabricator of the game. The concept of the game was teamwork. And to be honest, this is a two-member group so most things are the result of close teamwork.

Neither of us has had much experience in making games before grad school, but we like playing them. Yufei comes from an engineering and illustration background, and Yating comes from an advertising and interaction design background. In our program, Design and Technology, we both made several board games and alt-control games for classes and fun. The spark of this game came from one of those classes.

It’s a pot with some potions and a magical book. You just do witchy things you see in the movies; it’s as simple as that.

When we were brainstorming a concept for a game, alchemy and magic was just a domain we both think has huge creative space to make something quirky and intriguing. However, we didn’t want to just make a magic adventure game. So, we drew some concepts and then came to this image of two players fighting over a pot trying to put curses on each other. It was really fun to just come up with random curses and imagine how those curses would look like on the players. So, we decided this was the way we wanted to go, and after more game concept development, this competitive alchemy game is the one we landed on.

When we designed the mechanism of brewing potions, we wanted the process to be simple and direct. We decided to use combinations of several basic potions as the recipe to make different curses. First, it had to be determined what element each basic potion represented, and then, based on the combinations of those  elements, what each curse should be.

The second problem would be the game mechanism of adding and removing curses. At first, we thought to remove curses with spell chanting or ritual, but it just became so much of a parallel system that it shifted the core of this game. So, we designed it in a way that you simply add curses by drinking corresponding potions, and remove this curse by drinking the same potion again.

It’s our philosophy that the controller should make the action as realistic as possible, so when the player sees the controller for the first time, they can just interact with the controller with a very short learning period.
However, that does not mean the game itself is simple. The difficulty of this game comes into play when the player has to find the corresponding recipe and grasp the timing of adding potions. The action of adding a potion itself is not a part that requires players to continuously practice to become proficient.

When we designed the first version of the game, the recipe book was not part of the game controller and the players had to figure out what each combination of potions resulted in. Then, they had to memorize each recipe. The problem with that was there was so much information that the players needed to handle so they just ended up randomly mixing. So, this time we made a book with all the recipes on it for players to check.

The game is programed in Unity and the illustrations/animations are made in Photoshop. We use Arduino as the processor of the controller.

The shelves are all made of wood; we made them from scratch. The rest of the parts like the pot, the book and bottles are all items we bought from shops and then altered using laser cut and paintings. And then, of course, there are all the electronics.

The action of adding potions into the pot is the core gameplay, but that doesn’t have much variety, and after a couple of interactions players would lose interest. However, we liked how simple this action was, and we didn’t want to just make a game about potion making. By having the two players sharing and fighting for parts of game items, multiple layers are added to the action of adding potions. Not only did players need to pay attention to what potions should be added to the pot, the timing and the order of adding action also become something players need to take into consideration. So, it makes the game more interesting even after multiple times playing it. And the interaction with another player itself also adds to the fun of playing this game.

The colorful look of the curse and potion elements are mostly for communicating the game information. It’s so the players can quickly figure out what potions are in the pot and what kind of curse they have on them immediately.

We also wanted to make the looks of curses on players more exaggerated so that when a curse is added to a player, it is fun to see it instead of just being frustrating. Also, we know the topic and the narrative of this game is a bit heavy, so we didn’t want to make the vibe of the game to be all depressing and heavy by making all of the assets super-realistic. We add some cartoonish style into the art to lighten the game atmosphere.

As the Game Developers Conference approaches next month, we would like to reiterate how much we care about the global game development ecosystem & the health of our attendees, and would like to thank you for supporting us and the rest of the community.

We wanted to update you on our preparation for the event as we once again welcome you back to San Francisco.

We believe that, based on the strict U.S. quarantine around coronavirus and a large number of enhanced on-site measures, we are able to execute a safe and successful event for our community. Locally, the Department of Health for both the State of California and the City of San Francisco support the convening of public events. See their statements here: CDPH, SFDPH

We are also continuing to follow the latest CDC and WHO guidance, following in the footsteps of other large international events that are taking place successfully at the Moscone Center.

– The GDC team

GDC 2020 runs from Monday, March 16th through Friday, March 20th. This will be the 34th edition of GDC, and now that registration is officially open, you’ll want to take a look at the (ever-expanding) session schedule and your GDC pass options!

For more details on GDC 2020 visit the show’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent company Informa Tech

Hamster’s latest retro release on Switch has been revealed, and this time we’re being treated to 1984 arcade title, VS. MAHJONG.

The game will join the Switch’s ‘Arcade Archives’ series, where players can enjoy classic arcade titles with modernised features like adjustable game settings and leaderboards. Here’s the official description from Hamster itself:

“VS. MAH-JONG” is a 2-player Mahjong game released by Nintendo in 1984.
Practice against the computer with 1-player mode or play against friends and family with 2-player mode.
Think whether to make complex Mahjong hand or reliable Mahjong hand and experience the real pleasure of Mahjong!

The game arrives on Switch tomorrow, 21st February, and will be available for $7.99. You’ll be able to download it directly from the Switch’s eShop.

Earlier this month, Hamster shared a list of titles planned for release on Switch over the coming weeks. If Mahjong isn’t your cup of tea, maybe one of those games will do the trick?