By Joe Robinson 03 Jul 2019

Over on the Godot website and update on the status of the Vulkan renderer that is the marquee feature of Godot 4.0.  Vulkan is the Khronos Group’s new low level rendering alternative to OpenGL, that enables developers to get much closer to the metal than previous graphics APIs.  Development of the new Vulkan renderer was started back in May 2019 and has progressed rapidly since.  Development is on Github under the vulkan code branch.

Details from the Godot news site:

One of the main features that will be present in Godot 4.0 is the new RenderingDevice abstraction. Up to now, it was impossible to do any internal modifications to how Godot does rendering. This means that if you wanted to run custom low-level rendering code to a texture or buffer, custom post-processing, custom drawing code (other than what Godot shaders allow), custom compute, etc., this was not possible without modifying Godot’s rendering backend.

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Currently, RenderingDevice is more or less complete (compute support is missing) and the 2D engine is halfway being ported. Work on 3D rendering will begin near the end of the month.

There are a few ramifications for developers, but they are minimal.

In modern rendering APIs, there are architecture changes that force us to break compatibility and do some things differently. The immediate one is that it is no longer possible to set repeat, filter, etc. flags on imported textures. In 2D, this will be set per canvas item (Control or Node2D) using a new set of options. It will be also be possible to specify this in the shader or the material options (or just globally, if you are making a pixel art game).

Of course the question most people are probably asking is… when?

The goal is to have a more or less complete rewrite of the existing Godot 3.x feature set by October (cross your fingers), hard work and long hours are being put towards this.

Learn more, as well as how to get the Vulkan branch from GitHub in the video below.  If you are interested in learning Godot, be sure to check out our Godot tutorial series available here.

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Nintendo of America’s Samantha Robertson has left the Nintendo Treehouse after eight years. Robertson made the belated announcement herself over on her Twitter page.

There’s no need to be upset about her departure though, as she’s simply moved into a new role at the company. She’s now the Manager of Product Marketing for the Publisher and Developer Relations Department of Nintendo of America. Here’s what she had to say about it:

I can’t wait to work with Treehouse and the whole Nintendo family in new ways as we share our passion for all of the great games that developers and publishers from all over the world bring to life on our platforms.

On behalf of the community here at Nintendo Life, we wish Samantha the best of luck in her new role.

During a panel at the 2019 Anime Expo, Level-5 announced Yo-Kai Watch 4 for Nintendo Switch would eventually be released in the west (thanks, HDKirin). Although this isn’t the most surprising news, it’s nice to know the Japanese developer and publisher hasn’t forgotten about the fanbase within this region. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when exactly the game will be localised.

At the same panel, a Japanese Yo-Kai Watch trailer featuring English subtitles was shown. Level-5 explained how the fourth mainline entry in the series would include content that requires players to have watched specific Yo-Kai Watch films to completely understand. The company hasn’t confirmed if these films will be localised yet.

Yo-Kai Watch 3 for 3DS was released at the start of this year in North America and the end of last year in Europe, following its original Japanese release in 2016. The fourth game was released at the beginning of last month in Japan and took the top spot in on the local charts, despite lower than usual sales. We can only hope the fourth game doesn’t take as long to localise this time around.

Are you looking forward to trying out the next Yo-Kai Watch game? Have you played the previous entries? Tell us below.

If in-game tutorials aren’t your cup of tea, perhaps you would prefer to watch the above 25-minute video, demonstrating how to use every power-up in Super Mario Maker 2.

Yes, for your viewing pleasure, our lovely senior video producer Alex Olney has recorded how each one of the power-ups in the Nintendo Switch Super Mario Maker sequel can be used. He covers every theme in the game as well! We promise by the end of it, you’ll have at least a few ideas for your own courses.

For example, did you know a giant stiletto – which you can create by shaking a Goomba Shoe – has the ability to perform a ground pound attack? It can even take out Thwomps and destroy Bill Blasters. There are plenty of other interesting and helpful power-up facts contained within this video, so if you want to become the ultimate course creator, make sure you watch it.

Did you learn anything new? Tell us in the comments.

Earlier this week, WayForward revealed the talented Japanese animation studio Trigger would be responsible for the opening scene in the upcoming release, Shantae 5. To celebrate this announcement, some concept art was shared over on Twitter.

While we expected to be waiting much longer to see the final product, this opening animation has now been officially revealed at the 2019 Anime Expo. Fortunately, it’s also been shared in all its glory online. Read the description and view the trailer below:

Presenting the Opening Animation for Shantae 5, created by none other than the revered Studio TRIGGER! TRIGGER producer Naoko Tsutsumi (Little Witch Academia) collaborated with Shantae creator Erin Bozon (Futurama) and Matt Bozon (series director) to bring the Shantae characters to life. Vocals for the opening were performed by Cristina Vee (Miraculous Ladybug), featuring an original composition by Mark Sparling and musical arrangement by Maddie Lim.

As you can see, the opening animation inspiration from Studio Trigger’s previous work such as Kill la Kill, while featuring a number of familiar faces from the Shantae series. It prompted one fan on social media to ask WayForward if Uncle Mimic would be a playable character the next outing. Unfortunately, though, the developer remains tight-lipped and won’t be sharing any gameplay details just yet. Other fans asked about possible DLC and received a similar response. At least Shantae 5 is off to a promising start!

What do you think the above animation? Are you a fan of Studio Trigger’s previous work? Looking forward to the half-genie’s next outing? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The French government is trying to convince game developers to ply their trade in France through a new campaign called ‘Join the Game.’

The campaign talks up the opportunities available in France, and claims devs who make the move will gain access to a wide-variety of benefits including tax breaks, funding initiatives, and production support programs.

France, of course, is already home to a huge number of big-name studios and publishers like Ubisoft, Quantic Dream, Arkane Studios, Gameloft, and Focus Home Interactive.

“Proud of its history and dedicated to becoming the leading country in this industry, France has aimed, over the years, to remain an important hub for game development,” reads the Join the Game website.

“France has a dynamic network of publishers and studios, all of which are part of a structured and active ecosystem. It is composed of regional clusters, research laboratories and high-end schools constantly training new international talent.”

Although the campaign doesn’t specifically mention Brexit, some have noted it has arrived at a time of mass uncertainty caused by the UK’s decision to leave the EU — and its inability to hash out or agree on a viable Brexit option.

As a result, some have painted Join the Game as an attempt to lure UK developers across the channel, and given British developers themselves have labeled Brexit a ‘dire threat’ to the UK games industry, it’s not hard to imagine that some might be convinced to make the switch.

Halo 2 set a new standard for online multiplayer for the masses with the use of a (now ubiquitous) automated ‘playlist’ matchmaking system that replaced the player-curated lobbies of Halo 1.

Although the system has become the norm in the years since, at the time the notion of removing a player’s ability to choose their map, gametype, and opponents seemed farcical. In fact, it seemed downright insane to the point where one UX researcher called John Hopson went and told Bungie to rethink their approach.

Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. Looking back, we know Bungie was absolutely right to stick to its guns, and Hopson isn’t ashamed to admit he was dead wrong.

Writing about the time he ‘tried to ruin’ Halo 2 on Polgyon, the veteran researcher has detailed the entire saga from start to finish in the hope that researchers and developers might learn from what would’ve been a rather costly mistake. The first lesson? Researchers should absolutely lose the big arguments sometimes.

“UX researchers tend to get into the habit of thinking that we are discovering capital T Truth. This can lead to a lot of frustration when other parties in the development process don’t accept our findings. Now, we’re usually right, but false positives, false negatives, and outright mistakes are always possible,” he wrote.

“Games user research is a vital voice in the development process even though we’re no more perfect than anyone else involved. We’re supposed to advocate passionately for our understanding of the player experience, but we’re not always meant to win.

“In fact, I’d argue that, just like for the players in our games, there is an ideal level of failure for researchers. If every study is equally successful, it just means that we aren’t innovating enough or taking on challenging research topics. We need to take risks, and that means we have to lose sometimes.

For more tidbits from Hopson, and to learn more about the development of Halo 2, be sure to check out the full article over on Polygon.