Every month Epic Games give away several assets for their Unreal Engine Marketplace and this month is no exception.  The only catch is you have to “buy” the assets before the next giveaway starts, although the purchase price is zero.  Once you have purchased an asset it is yours forever.

This months content consists of;

Normally they also release a few assets permanently free at the same time, however this month… at least at the time of writing, there are no such free assets.

You can learn more about the assets in the video below.

GameDev News Unreal

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We’ve posted ‘We’re Hiring’ posts before, but this one’s a little different. Our Parent company, Network N, are looking for a new Editor and a Staff Writer to work on Pocket Tactics and take it forward into the glorious future we all know it deserves.

These positions will be located at Network N’s head office, which is in the city of Bath in the UK. No remote working arrangements will be considered:

• Please go here for more information on the Editor role, including how to apply.
• Please go here for more information on the Staff Writer role, including how to apply.

You have until January 8th to apply for either position. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour!

Hang on, doesn’t Pocket Tactics already have an Editor?

It does? Where’s he been all this time!? But yes, this is an important point: once a new Editor has been hired, I shall be stepping down as Editor of Pocket Tactics.

Readers may or may not be aware of this, but I actually run three websites on behalf of Network N: Pocket Tactics (obviously), but also Wargamer and Strategy Gamer.

For Pocket Tactics to really be able to spread its wings, it now needs a dedicated editorial team. That means an Editor focused solely on mobile gaming, with a Staff Writer who has phones and tablets surgically implanted into their body.

So, what does this mean?

In the short term; nothing! It’s not like the new people are going to turn up tomorrow. You’re stuck with me until the new year, at least. There are some big, exciting plans for Pocket Tactics and you’ll hear more about those soon enough. In the meantime it’ll just be business as usual.

I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve managed to achieve here since taking over from Dave in 2016, and hopefully I’ve done right by you guys. But now it’s time for someone more focused to take this site to the Platinum leagues – could it be you? Why not apply and find out!

The Game Awards 2019 News

• The Game Awards Winners Revealed Here
• Goodbye, Project Scarlett, Hello Xbox Series X - Exclusive First Look And Interview
• Game Awards 2019 News: Next-Gen Xbox Series X, Hellblade 2, And More
• Apex Legends Is Getting A Mirage-Themed, Christmas Event Called Holo-Day Bash
• Xbox Series X: Everything We Just Learned About Microsoft's Next-Gen Console
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Game Awards Trailer Focuses On Cloud's Personality

Humble are running a new bundle of interest to game developers, specifically 2D animators.  The Humble Software Bundle: 2D Animation is based around two key pieces of software, Crazytalk 8 Standard and Crazytalk Animator 3 Pro, both from RealIllusion.  As always the bundle is broken into tiers, the tiers of this bundle are:

1$

• Face Filter 3
• Makeup PRO

18$

• CrazyTalk 8
• Dress Up Show Time
• Dress Up Work Wear
• Stylized Classic Avatars
• Garry Pye’s Comic Faces

25$

• CrazyTalk Animator 3 PRO
• G3 Animals Dogs
• G3 Human Motions – Smooth Moves
• G3 Animated Props – Fun Stuff
• G3 Elastic Motions – Come and Go

With Humble Bundles you can decide how your funds are distributed, choosing between the developer, Humble, charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GameFromScratch if you purchase using this link.  Check out the video below for more details on the bundle.  Stay tuned for more hands-on content with CrazyTalk and CrazyTalk Animator in the near future!

GameDev News Art 2D Applications

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Another week has come and gone as we tumble inexorably towards 2020, and this one gifted Nintendo a few choice gongs at The Game Awards and all 10 spots in the Japanese All-Format game charts. We also saw the announcement of a raft of indie titles as part of the Indie World Showcase, not to mention a brand new video game console coming next year which looks like two GameCubes duct-taped together according to the internet.

But now it’s finally time to sit back and enjoy some game time. The Nintendo Life team have shared their plans below, and we’d love for you to get involved via the comments and poll sections as always. Enjoy!

Liam Doolan, news reporter

This weekend I’ll be digging into Shovel Knight: King of Cards. Like all of the previous Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove expansions, this one is pushing my 2D platforming skills to the absolute limit. At the moment I’m stuck in the second segment of the game. The level itself is easy enough, but I keep making some rookie mistakes against the boss that result in an immediate restart each time.

When I’m in need of a break, I’ll probably spend some time in Pokémon catching a number of Shield exclusives for the one and only Ryan Craddock. He has a copy of Sword, so we’re hoping to do a big trade at some point. I’m also looking forward to trying out the new Hori D-Pad Joy-Con I bought earlier this week on both of these games. That’s all for me!

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend, I fear I may find myself picking up Ring Fit Adventure as a way to work off all of the holiday meals and partying I’ve been indulging in. I have far too many friends who wish to hang out far too often, generally over far too much food and drink, and it’s beginning to show… We still have like 3 more weeks of this business, and it’s too cold & snowy to go run outside, so I’m thinking I’d better go get fit with that ring.

Gavin Lane, staff writer

This weekend I’ll be looking to polish off Gato Roboto. It’s been a fun little Metroidvania so far and I’m eager to finish it up. I haven’t got round to trying out the Master Sword item in Super Mario Maker 2 yet, so I’d also like to give that a whirl. The problem is I end up losing hours tinkering with level ideas but never actually finishing them, and the Master Sword is going to open up another whole world of possibilities.

Mind you, it’s only a couple of weeks until Christmas. I should probably get cracking with some Christmas shopping too.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

A package from the Far East arrived! Always exciting when these show up, reminding me of the simpler days of Super Famicom imports. Inside was Final Fantasy Twin Pack, Dusk Diver, LastFight (good news folks, it really is Power Stone 3! Bad news, I accidentally picked up the French version and the voices are locked. Sacre bleu!) and last but not least, my Game of The Week: SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays – the first game of this long running, zany series that arrives on the Switch with full English text localisation. Now also add the non-import releases over this fine week like Jamestown+, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger plus the usual sessions of DAEMON X MACHINA and Astral Chain (the REAL action game of the year) and good luck trying to get me apart from my Switch these 48 hours.

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…

I was just sent a Clockwork GameShell, it’s a build it yourself open source raspberry pi powered handheld computer.  What’s most appealling to me is how heavily focused on indie game developers this device is.  This is not a review of the device but instead a description of the build process (stay tuned for a proper review!).  So let’s take a look at the process from beginning to end and I’ll point out the few snags I encountered on the way.  If you are interested in getting one of your own, they are available on Amazon.

The underlying specs of hardware are as follows:

New ClockworkPi V3.1:Powered by Quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, MaliGPU, Wi-Fi &Bluetooth, 1GB DDR3 Memory, 16GB MicroSD, HDMI output, GPIOs.

Keypad: Programmable Keypad and powered by an ATmega168P [email protected] with 30Pin Arduino compatibility GPIOs.

Audio: 2 Channel Stereo Speaker

Visual: 2.7-inch [email protected]

Rechargeable Battery: 3.7v, 1200mAh

Lightkey module: 5 independent IO extended keys for shoulder buttons

GameShell Shells: 1 front shell+2 back shells

MicroSD Card: 16GB

OS: ClockworkPi OS,Linux  4.1x

Debug cable: 14PIN GPIOs

Let’s look at what you get and how you assemble it.

The Box

This is a extremely minor point, but I was quite impressed with the packaging the GameShell came in.  Right away it’s generally just a higher quality of packaging and branding than I am accustomed to for these kinds of products, it does have a premium feeling as a result. Click any photo for a much higher resolution version.

The Contents

The inside of the box is several other boxes and a collection of plastic punch out components.  In terms of equipment you need to do this build you are going to want a sharp knife at the very least.  A fine file and pair of side cutters to remove the plastic attachments are also recommended, but I got by with just a knife.

Assembly

Now it’s time to start putting things together.  The instructions are IKEA style (but thankfully better than most IKEA!) step by step pictographic instructions.  The assembly is module by module.  The primary modules are the screen, the battery, the main system board and the controller as well as the speaker (not shown).

Once these 5 modules are completed, its its time to mount the modules into the backplate and connect the various power wires between the devices.  This is probably the trickiest part with one exception I will discuss in a minute.

Finally it’s a matter of attaching the front plate, attaching two thumb screws and praying you did everything right.  And the final completed product!

The Gotchas

Assembly was extremely straight forward with only two snags.  The first step is when creating the display module illustrated below.

Notice the inset diagram shows the cable being bent backwards, while the layer diagram does not show this?  This is vitally important, you do in fact have to bend the display cable 180 degrees.

The second problem is actually around the same issue.  Connecting the display ribbon cable to the main board should be done *BEFORE* you close the case around it, making it insanely difficult connect unless you open it.

The only other issue I ran into is occasionally they mounted the plastic pieces to the plastic frame at less than ideal locations.  For example there was a mount point where the display cable needs to be fed.  I had to make a special point of filing down the excess plastic to keep it from rubbing against or puncturing the fragile ribbon cable.  It would be ideal if pieces were mounted slightly different, but its a small issue.

Now that I have the GameShell built, it’s time to start trying to develop games for it.  Stay tuned for that video in the near future.

General Love2D LUA Review

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Last week, you might recall an issue affecting the Switch version of Civilization VI, which resulted in the game crashing right before a victory. The development team was quick to provide an official response, explaining how you had to “declare war” against the crash-causing civilization before the end of your turn.

Thankfully, you shouldn’t have to worry about your game crashing anymore. A new patch now available for the Switch version means you can now load up your existing saves and win. That’s provided you don’t load up an old one and try to claim a cultural victory. Fortunately, there are “no issues” with new game saves.

Here’s a full explanation by a user over on the Civ subreddit:

Fellow Nintendo Switch players— there is a new patch today and it appears to have fixed the major “crash on victory” problem. Since I noticed the problem I’ve been hording save files one turn until victory, and with the new patch I’ve been loading them up one by one and three so far have successfully finished the game.

I had another problem where my hall of fame would randomly disappear — haven’t been able to fully investigate that yet. Hopefully it stopped vanishing as well.

Edit #1: Domination, Religious, Science victories all working normally now with the saves I had waiting a turn before victory. Cultural victories, however, are not. Had cultural victories ready for Kongo, Egypt, and Persia, but none of them work. Games continue as normal, despite having more than enough foreign tourists for victories to trigger. Can’t tell if it’s only on previous saves or if cultural victories won’t work for new games either. Will find out soon, I guess, since cultural is my favorite victory method.

Edit #2: Happy to report that I just finished a new quick game where I got a cultural victory with China with no issues, so it appears to just effect cultural victories of old saves! Hooray!

Various other users on the subreddit have also stated how the patch has now resolved their own in-game problems. To read more about this issue and the statement provided by the game’s developer, check out the original story.

How has your experience been with Civ on the Switch since this patch came out? Comment down below.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Venice, California

When it comes to creating mind blowing immersive experiences Wevr, a pioneering immersive entertainment studio, knows the game! With some of the top talent in the industry, not only do we work hard to create an environment that helps us attract the best, we cultivate a culture with more opportunities for our team to continue to thrive. 

Hiring a mix of the best talent, from seasoned industry veterans to talented rising stars, our goal is to incorporate diversity that garners new perspectives and experiences. We love working with brave talent who thrive in navigating the waters of the ever-evolving modern interactive entertainment world.          

We have an exciting, groundbreaking, multiplayer, story driven VR project in the works and are looking for an Audio Designer / Implementer with strong UE4 experience to join our team in Venice, California. Our ideal candidate will help realize our goal of delivering the most immersive VR experiences possible. 

About the Job: 

  As Audio Designer / Implementer you will be part of the team working on a new, unannounced project based on one of the foremost popular IPs in the world today. The right candidate will be multifaceted and self-motivated with shipped project experience under their belt and is ready to come in and make an immediate impact on our projects. 

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate with the interactive and animation teams to solve problems and create amazing audio narratives and experiences.
• Work with UE4 blueprints and data assets to hook up and test audio.
• Evaluate audio mix and implementation of audio assets in-game and adjust according to needs.
• Help with linear trailer or promo video sound editing and mixing.
• Organize and manage sound libraries and created audio assets.
• Finish tasks on schedule and be able to manage and prioritize tasks within the given timelines.

Requirements: 

• Familiarity designing, editing, mixing, compression & mastering audio using DAWs such as Reaper, Logic or similar.
• 3+ years as part of an audio team with 2+ shipped titles.
• Experience implementing content for interactive media.
• Firm grasp of audio engineering fundamentals for studio and field recording.
• Experience with UE4 audio engine features such as sound cues, sound classes, mixes, audio components strongly preferred.
• Experience with Unreal editor, including scripting, level editor, animation and level sequence editors.
• Experience with 3rd party spatialization plugins such as Steam Audio (Phonon) a plus.
• Experience with audio middleware and implementing audio assets into a game build.
• Familiarity with audio scripting to achieve desired in-game audio features and dynamic playback.
• Strong self-management and problem-solving skills.

Please include a 3+ minute reel highlighting your greatest work along with your application.

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.