The idea of porting The Wonderful 101 to Switch seems to be brought up surprisingly often. Indeed, it was only a couple of weeks ago when we last heard about it, as PlatinumGames executive director Atsushi Inaba said that he was “glad” he has spoken about it in the past and asked fans to be patient.

This has been going on for some time, too. There was a tease for a Switch port back in July 2017, then it was brought up in an official manner in April 2018; this February Inaba even confessed he’d love to “secretly” announce the game for Switch. Nintendo technically owns The Wonderful 101 IP, but it’s clear Platinum at least would like to rerelease it.

Now, speaking to VGC at E3, Inaba has once again commented on the game. When asked about the game’s port progress, he said “The Wonderful 101 is obviously something that we hold near and dear to our hearts. And so we’ve talked to a lot of different people about what it is and what it means”.

Interestingly, he elaborated on this a little further, once again mentioning that he’s “glad” about the current situation.

“We’ve done a lot of intel gathering and the only thing that I can say right now is that I’m glad we did. I’m glad that we talked to a lot of different people.”

It certainly sounds like some pretty exciting things are going on behind-the-scenes at Platinum, but we’ll have to keep waiting for any official confirmation, it seems. If you didn’t pick this one up on Wii U a few years back, here’s hoping you’re in for a treat on your shiny new Switch.

What does it take to make a Linux distribution like Fedora 30? As you might expect, it’s not a simple process.

Changes in Fedora 30

Although Fedora 29 released on October 30, 2018, work on Fedora 30 began long before that. The first change proposal was submitted in late August. By my count, contributors made nine separate change proposals for Fedora 30 before Fedora 29 shipped.

Some of these proposals come early because they have a big impact, like mass removal of Python 2 packages. By the time the proposal deadline arrived in early January, the community had submitted 50 change proposals.

Of course, not all change proposals make it into the shipped release. Some of them are more focused on how we build the release instead of what we release. Others don’t get done in time. System-wide changes must have a contingency plan. These changes are generally evaluated at one of three points in the schedule: when packages branch from Rawhide, at the beginning of the Beta freeze, and at the beginning of the Final freeze. For Fedora 30, 45 Change proposals were still active for the release.

Fedora has a calendar-based release schedule, but that doesn’t mean we ship whatever exists on a given date. We have a set of release criteria that we test against, and we don’t put out a release until all the blockers are resolved. This sometimes means a release is delayed, but it’s important that we ship reliable software.

For the Fedora 30 development cycle, we accepted 22 proposed blocker bugs and rejected 6. We also granted 33 freeze exceptions — bugs that can be fixed during the freeze because they impact the released artifacts or are otherwise important enough to include in the release.

Other contributions

Of course, there’s more to making a release than writing or packaging the code, testing it, and building the images. As with every release, the Fedora Design team created a new desktop background along with several supplemental wallpapers. The Fedora Marketing team wrote release announcements and put together talking points for the Ambassadors and Advocates to use when talking to the broader community.

If you’ve looked at our new website, that was the work of the Websites team in preparation for the Fedora 30 release:

The Documentation Team wrote Release Notes and updated other documentation. Translators provided translations to dozens of languages.

Many other people made contributions to the release of Fedora 30 in some way. It’s not easy to count everyone who has a hand in producing a Linux distribution, but we appreciate every one of our contributors. If you would like to join the Fedora Community but aren’t sure where to start, check out What Can I Do For Fedora?

Photo by Robin Sommer on Unsplash.

The Pathfinder update for MapleStory is Now Available on Steam!

Prepare for the adventure of your life as new class Pathfinder arrives in Maple World! This update brings tons of thrilling events including the return of Tera Burning Project and fun-filled Adventure Island. With the addition of system revamps and a new theme dungeon, you’ll find lots to explore!

Amazon have just released beta 1.19 of their game engine Lumberyard.  Sharing a common code base with CryEngine, CryTek and Amazon have taken their game engines in very different directions the last few years.  Lumberyard is free to use, so long as you host your own multiplayer services or use Amazon technologies.

The 1.19 release brings over 150 improvements, but there are two highlight features:

• New Dynamic Vegetation System. Procedurally generate a diverse and detailed biome in minutes instead of manually placing and painting in vegetation. Lumberyard’s new vegetation components support a wide range of artistic expressions and fine-grained control over the scale, density, and distribution in your biomes. You can also improve runtime performance by configuring segments of vegetation to be placed or removed at runtime based on player location and gameplay events.
• Major updates to Script Canvas. Create even more dynamic behaviors and gameplay without having to code or rely on expert engineers. We’ve made major improvements to Script Canvas, introducing support for containers such as arrays and maps, new Script Events that enable you to send events between graphs and scripts, and new graph validation and debugger features so you can find, diagnose, and fix invalid graphs more quickly. We’ve also made workflow improvements to make it even easier add, configure, and organize nodes in your graphs.

View the full release notes for complete details of this release.  Check out the video below to see the new vegetation system and script canvas improvements in action.  Lumberyard is available for download here, be aware however if you zoom the web page in, the download link goes away…  not the best UX there.

GameDev News Engine CryEngine

Watch Dogs: Legion is coming to Xbox One on March 6, 2020, taking you to a near-future London torn between sinister factions working to keep citizens meek and controlled. Organized criminals vie with a sinister private military for control of the streets, all under the watchful eye of an oppressive surveillance state. The citizens need something to rally around if they’re going to take back the city, and that something is the hacker collective DedSec.

In Watch Dogs: Legion, your mission is to pull together a resistance from the people around you, and use their innate traits to build a group of effective operatives who can hack, fight, and sneak their way through the powerful forces holding London in their grip. You can recruit any character you see in the open world, from former spies to street toughs to panhandlers to sweet old grannies. Everyone around you is a persistent character with a distinct daily schedule, backstory, voice, and personality, with the latter two coming across loud and clear in the game’s cutscenes. They also have specific problems, and if you work to solve them, you can raise their opinion of DedSec and make them more open to joining your ranks.

Once they do, you’ll be able to control them directly, as well as swap between them and any other operatives on your team. You’ll also be able assign them into one of three classes; characters who can deal bonus shotgun damage, for example, might make good Enforcers, tough fighters who can handle heavy firepower. Those who like to stay hidden, meanwhile, can make excellent sneaky Infiltrators, while the technically inclined can manipulate systems and control drones as Hackers. It’s up to you to decide how best to use these skills, and to choose the characters you think would make the best additions to your team.

Whatever role you decide for them, you’ll want to approach dangerous situations carefully, because if a character under your control dies – whether in a firefight or a car accident – they’re gone for good. You can minimize risk through your approach to conflict; opt for hand-to-hand combat instead of pulling a weapon, for example, and your enemies will try to arrest or take you down nonlethally. Pull a gun, however – even a nonlethal one – and your enemies will start shooting, which can have dire consequences for your operative.

Operatives who stay alive can level up, unlocking new abilities and tools that can give your team a diverse set of skills to draw from. And you’ll be able to use those skills in concert with those of your friends in four-player co-op, with persistent progression for your operatives whether you’re playing solo or via Xbox Live.

Watch Dogs: Legion is available now for preorder on Xbox One from the Microsoft Store. Preordering any version of Watch Dogs: Legion will net you the Golden King Pack, which includes three in-game items: the Lux car skin, the Uneasy Lies Mask skin, and the Serpent Sisters pistol skin. You can also grab the Gold Edition, which includes the base game and the Season Pass; the Ultimate Edition, which packs in the Gold Edition’s content plus additional digital content, including four weeks of VIP status to earn experience and currency more quickly; or the Collector’s Edition, which combines the Ultimate content with physical items including an LED Ded Coronet Mask Replica (and instant access to its in-game equivalent), a Steelbook case, stickers, and a propaganda poster. Preordering the Gold, Ultimate, or Collector’s Edition also gets you three-day early access to the game, starting March 3, 2020.

Keep an eye on Xbox Wire and Ubisoft News for much more on Watch Dogs: Legion in very near future.

They Are Billions is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

They Are Billions is a Steampunk strategy game set on a post-apocalyptic planet. Build and defend colonies to survive against the billions of the infected that seek to annihilate the few remaining living humans. Can humanity survive after the zombie apocalypse?

*Offer ends June 25 at 10AM Pacific Time

This week at Bungie, we prepare for Calus’s new challenge.

Now, let’s get down to business on your weekly roundup of Destiny– and Bungie-related news.

Challenge Fit for a Guardian

Season of Opulence is full steam ahead. You’ve scoured the depths of the Menagerie, begun your quest for Truth, and taken the Crown of Sorrow. Our next stop on the roadmap begins June 25 with Menagerie Heroic mode.

So, let’s dig in. What does Calus have lined up for our most powerful Guardians?

Though we’ll be watching, this won’t be a race. We’re excited to see how players customize their experience with various challenges to show off their skill. Can you defeat Heroic mode with fewer than six players? Maybe with specific loadouts? Only time will tell.

Take Pride

June isn’t the only time when we live our values as a company, but it’s a great opportunity to celebrate them. Here is an important message from the Bungie Diversity Committee on how you can join us in expressing your pride, along with the people who make the games you play.

Pride Month is an exciting time of year, when we can all unite under a rainbow flag and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ family. Bungie has come together this month to do more than we’ve been able to accomplish before.

We have a Pride pin for sale on our Bungie Store, with all proceeds going directly to the It Gets Better Project (a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe). This year, not only will Bungie continue its tradition of marching in the Seattle Pride Parade as an official sponsor, but we have also teamed up with other nearby dev studios to create a more united game industry alliance. While we celebrate this month, it’s vital that we stay centered on what Pride is truly about; the equal rights and representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, People who deserve to be celebrated and recognized for their role in making our community as amazing as it is.

“For me, Pride means being able to be visible to someone who needs representation (even when they may not realize it), as opposed to how it used to be where visibility only meant being a target.” —Jayce D., Designer

We on the Bungie Diversity Committee are committed to improving Bungie’s work culture, practices, and policies in order to make this community a more welcoming and inclusive space for our LGBTQIA+ employees and fans around the world. This work does not start and end in June; rather, it’s a series of challenges that we work on every day, month after month. Here at Bungie, we know there are still a lot of ways we could be doing better. We also know that our industry sometimes drags its heels when it comes to necessary change. However, we must keep moving forward for the sake of our own teams, coworkers, families, and players who need to know that they are seen, accepted, welcomed, and loved for exactly who they are.

“One of the most empowering things I’ve experienced is the acknowledgement that I exist in a world that generally pretends otherwise. This was the greatest gift games have ever given me, and one of the most important things I want to do as a developer is give that gift to players.” —David S., Engineer

We look forward to celebrating Pride Month with all of you. Let’s keep our eyes up, and do our part to forge a brighter future.

—Bungie Diversity Committee

Preserving the Truth

The members of Destiny Player Support navigate the help forum daily, spreading helpful tips on how to work around issues or collecting data on any newly surfaced problems within Destiny 2. This week, they have some super good advice on how to keep your Truth quest on the right track.

This is their report.

Fall 2019 FAQ Update

This week, we’re making some updates and revisions to our Fall 2019 FAQ. See below for this week’s additions:

Q: What is included with Bungie Store purchases of physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Digital products delivered via email before September 17, 2019:

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Collector’s Edition exclusive physical collectible bundle contents delivered on or before September 17, 2019:

• Collector’s Edition Exclusive In-Game Emblem Code: An exclusive in-game emblem code printed inside the physical collectible bundle.
• Hive Cryptoglyph Replica: Follow clues in the Collector’s Edition to unlock the Hive Cryptoglyph and its secret contents. Dimensions: 7.8”L.
• Metal Luna Mission Container: A metal Luna mission folio that holds esoteric relics and records. Dimensions: 8.6”L x 5.9”W.
• Luna Mission Handbook: Containing 40 pages of schematics and design documents.
• Luna Journal: A 160-page journal featuring additional story content that is bound with the mysterious charms and talismans of Eris Morn.
• Artifacts from the Golden Age.

Q: When should players expect Destiny 2: Shadowkeep to ship from the Bungie Store?

A: Physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will ship to players on or before September 17, 2019. Included digital codes will be delivered by email to players on or before September 17, 2019. Players should be aware that Bungie Store codes included with Shadowkeep physical edition purchases will arrive only by email, and that no versions include any codes in the box.

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Q: Who should players contact with concerns regarding their Bungie Store physical edition purchase of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to orders@bungiestore.com.

Additionally, we’ve revised the following questions for clarity in response to player feedback:

Q: Do players need to repurchase Destiny 2 on each cross-save platform separately?

A: Destiny 2 will be accessible to players on all available platforms for free as Destiny 2: New Light. However, players will need to purchase Destiny 2 expansions (Forsaken, Shadowkeep) for each connected platform in order to access that expansion’s content. Cross save will preserve all gear, character, and items across all platforms regardless of expansion ownership.

Q: Can players merge different characters, items, or Triumphs from different accounts? 

A: Cross Save does not feature any form of account, character, or progress merging. Selecting a set of characters for Cross Save does not delete or alter the data of any other character sets. Other character sets will be inaccessible for use as long as Cross Save is active.

Q: Will Stadia feature cross-play with Steam or other platforms?

A: Cross-play will not be available for any platform in 2019. We are investigating this feature for Destiny 2, but we have no official announcements to make at this time.

Destiny 2 Season of Opulence Known Issues

Listed below are the latest player-impacting issues discovered in Season of Opulence:

• Not Getting Truth from the Ascendant Chest: We’re investigating an issue where players may not receive Truth after they open the Ascendant Chest if they aren’t on the quest step “Candy from a Baby.” Players should ensure they are on the appropriate quest step before opening this chest.
• Refer-a-Friend Linking Issue: We’re investigating an issue where new players can’t accept links from veteran players.
• 690 Gear for Alternate Characters: We’re investigating an issue where players don’t receive 690 gear on all of their characters after completing “The Invitation” quest.
• Vestian Dynasty: We’re aware that Vestian Dynasty is dropping for players after Update 2.2.1.
• Rune Bonus II Not Refunding: We’re investigating an issue where players who have this node active in their Chalice of Opulence don’t always receive a rune back when opening the Menagerie chest.
• Double Rune Drops: We’re investigating an issue where players receive only one rune when two runes of the same type drop at the end of an activity.
• Infamy Points and Bounty Issues: We’re investigating an issue where Gambit Prime “Civic Duty” bounties are not counting toward player Infamy ranks.
• Crystals in Eater of Worlds and Crossroad Public Event: We’re investigating an issue where these crystals don’t transition correctly and it becomes difficult to shoot them.
• Raid Witches Vessel Swappers Not Spawning: We are investigating an issue where the swappers do not spawn during flawless runs of the Crown of Sorrow raid, resulting in players being unable to complete the flawless run.
• Static Shock Emote: We’re investigating an issue where players have a hard time interacting with this emote prompt.
• Sturm and Drang Audio: We are investigating an issue where Sturm plays the reload audio on every kill when paired with Drang or Drang (Baroque), even when Drang’s magazine is full.

Frame by Frame

The movies keep rolling in. With players finding new pinnacle and Menagerie weapons to add to their arsenal, we’re seeing some great plays in the wild. Not only that, but fireteams of three taking on the Crown of Sorrow raid.

Movie of the Week: Three-player Crown of Sorrow

Honorable Mention: You use your anger well, Guardian

This weekend, I’ll be on the hunt for some Iron Banner gear with enhanced perk rolls. This is your first chance for enhanced perks through the Crucible, so get to it! Lord Saladin is offering a new quest to unlock each piece, so make sure to complete the appropriate quest step for your desired armor piece before exchanging tokens for random rolls. If you’re a sniper, I highly recommend the enhanced Unflinching Sniper Aim perk for chest pieces.

We’ll see you next week for Menagerie Heroic mode. Prep your fireteam accordingly.

Cheers,

Dmg04