Your #AlmostHeaven adventure to @Fallout begins now. #Fallout76https://t.co/V0qdxWoM0A pic.twitter.com/mJJnssbyqM

— West Virginia Tourism (@WVtourism) October 11, 2018

Advancements in technology like cloud computing and artificial intelligence are transforming our economy and reshaping the future of work as profoundly as the Industrial Revolution did a century ago. Technology is creating a new digital economy, full of new economic opportunities, but for too many people, those opportunities remain out of reach because they lack the skills these jobs require. Earlier this year, an OECD report showed automation will have a major impact on nearly one out of every two jobs. According to the report, 1 in 10 jobs in the U.S. is at high risk of becoming automated, and approximately 28 percent of jobs will be significantly changed by automation.

Addressing this issue involves changing the way we educate and train people, while also changing the way companies hire and support their employees. We need to ensure all workers are empowered to gain relevant skills – both technical and foundational or “soft-skills” – for jobs in the new economy, no matter where they are in their careers. Most importantly, we need to increase the pathways to connect job-seekers to employers. We need to ensure the skills, knowledge and abilities individuals possess and those that employers need are demonstrated in new ways, whether it is a certificate, apprenticeship, or college degree, and must create better systems to validate these credentials. This new skills-based approach will create greater opportunity and equity for individuals and employers. We believe corporations like ours have a chance to make sure the future we’re building is for everyone.

Over the past year, Microsoft and LinkedIn partnered with the Markle Foundation to develop Skillful, a model involving key players across the labor market, so more Americans can benefit from the digital economy. Our work has focused on creating change to shift to a more skills-based labor market, ensuring people across all skill levels and geographies have greater access to opportunities and connections to employment as the economy evolves. In the first year of our partnership, we began our work in Colorado, where we have seen a significant impact, helping more than 3,000 individuals onto a better career pathway. Skillful not only helps individuals gain the skills necessary for jobs in in-demand industries like advanced manufacturing, healthcare and tech, but just as importantly, it enables employers to more quickly find the talent needed in a tight labor market by considering a new employment pool. Skillful’s success in Colorado provided us with a proof of concept, but we also know that every community is distinct and has unique needs.

This is why we are expanding our work. For example, over the next decade, Indiana will need one million skilled workers to fill open jobs and support economic growth. Today, with Governor Eric Holcomb, we expanded Skillful to the state where we are tailoring Skillful Indiana’s programs to its unique strengths and needs: employer programs for Indiana’s distinctive mix of large and small, and urban and rural employers; education initiatives tailored to Indiana’s innovative higher education system; and investment in career coaches as an important support for Hoosiers navigating educational and job opportunities.

As we sought to build on the program’s success and expand Skillful, we knew we needed to have local partners at the table. We have learned over the years that change, and more importantly, sustainable change is driven by developing trust and having the work owned by the local community and organizations who know the needs and assets of their communities most deeply. We are excited to have key Indiana partners like the Lumina Foundation and Purdue University join this important work and play a vital role in the program’s impact in the state.

As technology continues to evolve quickly, those of us who create AI, cloud, and other innovations know we must be intentional in our work to ensure the digital transformation creates economic opportunity for all. This requires partnering with government, academia, business, civil society, and other interested stakeholders to come together to help shape this future. Each of us has a responsibility to participate and ensure everyone is empowered with the digital skills they need to pursue the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Tags: AI, Education and Jobs, Microsoft Philanthropies

Should studios set aside permanent spaces dedicated to game accessibility research, feedback, education, and design?

In this GDC 2018 talk, Mixer’s Tara Voelker and 343 Industries’ Brannon Zahand discuss the value of a dedicated inclusive technologies space at Microsoft.

The two go over how the lab was launched, what went right (and not quite right) during the first six months of operation, and provide detailed tips and tricks for those interested in setting up their own accessibility-centric space.

It’s an insightful talk that’s worth watching, so developers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to do so now that it’s freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.

In “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert M. Pirsig writes about quality. I think Deadliners gave me a taste of it. There’s a quality that goes into deep work, and there’s appreciation to be found there. Hidden steps and mysterious secrets to discover.

Creating things that work in this world is extremely difficult, but when it clicks you feel the love. Until the next problem arises, and it’s back to work. Conjuring up dragons isn’t the most pleasant experience but slaying them is better than you can possibly imagine.

Deadliners is a straightforward game, but parts of the gameplay talk deeply to who we are, and how we react when faced with our limits (I love that). People don’t know they have it in them, and I hope Deadliners can help bring that out.

It all started years ago when I made a little prototype game called Deadliners in JavaScript. The idea came from my older brother, who played a lot of Tron with his friends back in the 80s. It was easy to feel how much he missed that time. We had a lot of fun playing the prototype, and I had created it all on my own!

Finding the Right Path

A couple of years later I finished my BA in Software Engineering, which had been tremendously dull. I wanted to make a change for the future, but I didn’t know how.

And that’s when Casey Muratori saved my life.

Casey is the sole programmer and author of the YouTube show called “Handmade Hero,” an educational stream where he teaches you to program an entire game from scratch. I can’t recommend it enough. A single stream of “Handmade Hero” shows you just how masterful a person can be, and it’s right there, on the Internet.

I was blown away. Seeing that, my gut told me to follow along for a couple of months, and after that I knew I was headed in the right direction. I wanted that for my life, and oh my god, it was the best decision ever.

Coming to a Decision

After following the teachings of Casey, I branched out and worked on minor games to improve my skill. I made a little Bomberman-like game and a few months after I started on a bigger original project. Of course, the scope was way too big, being a single-person developer, and I dropped the project. I had to approach it differently. Deadliners was still in the back of my mind, and I thought: Why not?

I knew the gameplay was fun, and quickly ideas popped in to my mind about different game modes and challenges. My older brother helped me once more and we had many great talks about the design, the graphics and what kind of music to put in. We also had a bunch of disagreements, being family in a somewhat commercial project isn’t always great. I guess it made us stronger.

The development took about nine months, where I had to learn a whole lot, and I got help from a bunch of nice people who helped make the graphics and soundtrack. I think it turned out well, especially the gameplay. There are depths to it, that hopefully some players get to experience.

Looking Forward

Something very special about our time is that you can treat YouTube as your own little university. You can choose freely among the best of many different teachers. If you have the discipline, you can gain insight from masters of the craft and create a fantastic education for yourself. Material beats method and YouTube has excellent material, if you know how to find it.

Watching different programmers at work, I found my own style and I grasped the lessons that worked well for me. One of the best ones, I think, is the art of getting things going.

It’s so easy not to go after your goals in life, but there is a trick to get going, and if you figure it out, nothing can stop you. You pass through the membrane. You take the war path. You get out of bed, sit down, and you do the work. One step in front of the other, into the unknown.

Would I recommend making a game to someone else? Making Deadliners was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done. I imagined it would be hard making a game; it’s not like that information is hard to find. But it was much, much harder.

I guess you must ignore the warning signs, if you really want something of value. Every single step in development was a challenge, nothing came easy. Learning C/C++, game design, graphics API’s, game testing, finding help among friends and to finally release it to the world is something I look back on with much despair.

Looking at a list of a 150 todo’s, knowing there is only one guy to finish them all. I am grateful it worked out, and I can’t wait for my next project. Maybe conjuring up dragons is my kind of thing.

I hope players will like the game and invite their friends to a small tournament, and that they feel the spirit of my brothers gaming group from the 80s. It’s always interesting figuring out hierarchies, and in Deadliners, you quickly realize who’s the best. Good luck!

There’s loads of stuff in Super Mario Party. In fact, there’s arguably more variety than any previous Mario Party game. But what’s old? What’s new? What’s the banana game? Well, in this feature we’re going to take you through the lion’s share of what’s new and improved in the latest game in the Mario Party series.

Game Modes

It may be the return to the old formula that many have been begging for, but the old-fashioned Mario Party isn’t the only game mode you’ll have available at your fingertips, oh no.

Partner Party is an evolution of the gameplay that first appeared in Mario Party: Star Rush; you move around a grid board freely rather than a set path with a few forks, but this time you’ll be doing it with a partner, as the name suggests. That means you’ll be involved in a 2v2 party rather than being a total free-for-all, allowing for some interesting strategies to be employed, by which we mean new and exciting ways to shatter your friendships. At least one of them will be maintained.

River Survival is a four-player co-op experience that tasks you with careering down a raging river whilst paddling in sync, slamming into minigame balloons, and avoiding more river-themed obstacles than you can shake an oar at. You’re on a time limit to get to the end, but as long as you work together, you’ll do brilliantly.

Sound Stage is a minigame rush mode that employs nothing but rhythm and timing. Charge through them to the sound of some classic Mario tunes and see who can score the highest and be potentially crowned the next Mozart.

And finally, if you’re more on a solo mission, you can indulge in Challenge Road. This will take you through every one of the 80 minigames on offer with occasionally mixed-up completion requirements. If you breeze through it all too quickly for your liking, return to the start and try and beat the harder challenges that you’ve just unknowingly unlocked.

Toad’s Rec Room

When the party’s just a bit too much, you can always retire to Toad’s Rec Room for a bit of an old ‘chillax’. Here you can play a variety of minigames that aren’t really suited to standard board game play, be it due to length, complexity, or requiring more than one Switch console.

Three of the four games only need a single system, but one of them requires two to even function. You have to rotate your consoles around to match up two halves of a banana perfectly, swipe across both screens, and yes it’s as ludicrous as it sounds. Break it out at Christmas if you don’t want to get into a whole, hour-minimum session.

Playable Characters, Allies, & their Dice Blocks

What’s better than having a myriad of playable characters to choose from? Super Mario Party offers more characters than any previous game in the series, with 16 being available the moment you slap your Switch on, and an extra 4 to be unlocked as you progress. That makes a total of 20 for any of you maths fans out there.

Each character also has their own unique die that they can roll. This was also present in Mario Party: Star Rush, but it’s been streamlined here to be more universal and less context-sensitive. These special dice can have a face value of up to ten, but can also cause you to gain or lose coins if you’re lucky and/or unlucky. Even if your character’s die looks rubbish, you never know when it might be beneficial to roll a lower number than usual, or even just stay where you are, especially if you’re on an Item Space.

Not only that, but characters that aren’t in the party can be called upon by landing on an Ally Space, using the Ally Phone item (known as Buddy Phone outside the UK for some reason), or in the case of Partner Party, just running into them as they stand waiting patiently to have something to do. Every Ally Character you have in your entourage can add up to 2 to your roll each, and you’ll also be able to use their special die if you so choose, so try and nab as many of these characters as you can!

Online Mariothon

If you’re looking to take things onto the internet and only destroy long-distance friendships, Super Mario Party has online for the first time in the series. Sadly this doesn’t include the main board game modes, but rather a short burst of minigames. The 10 minigames available are divided into cups which rotate as time goes by, and can be played with friends or randomly selected strangers.

Stickers

You also unlock stickers as you go through the game, which you can arrange on a series of backgrounds and share with the world by taking a screenshot. It’s a simple addition, but that’s your thing, enjoy!

What’s your favourite new feature in Super Mario Party? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle / カプコン ベルトアクション コレクション is Now Available on Steam!

Relive the glory days of cooperative arcade games with the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle! This comprehensive collection includes seven classic titles, each with various multiplayer options and online capabilities!