Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-11-2018, 01:17 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Don’t Miss: What’s the ideal time frame for announcing your release date?
The announcement of a firm release date for a hotly anticipated game can be a media event in itself. Case in point: Peter Moore’s “Halo 2 November 9″ tattoo.
But nailing down the perfect time to announce a release date is a tricky gambit — and extremely important. Announce too early in your dev cycle and you risk enthusiasm waning in the intervening time. Unforeseen complications could cause you to miss your date, earning you the ire of the people who are most invested in your game. Announce too late and you find yourself with a narrow marketing window, with scant time to build excitement around your game and prep for an impactful launch.
There are a number of universal concerns regardless of the size and scale of your studio, but a series of interviews suggests that independents tend to approach establishing and announcing a date very differently than a triple-A developers, who in turn tend to take a different tack than a dedicated PR firm. For indies, the proper time frame can be a couple of months. For triple-A titles, it can be three or four months, or even a year in advance.
“Dates are best left for games that are done,” says Adam Saltsman, a refrain heard a number of times from independent developers. Saltsman is the dev behind the indie runner Canabaltand a founder game studio Finji. For him, giving the press and public sufficient lead time takes a back seat to reliably hitting your date.
“As soon as the game is done (where ‘done’ means shippable with only reasonable regrets), I’d throw a date out there,” says Saltsman. “Anytime before then is asking for trouble. And even then, there’s about 15 caveats for making sure you’ve orchestrated all your timing and patches and QA with all your platform partners.”
Saltsman emphasizes the importance of pinning down a date that’s reasonable not only for the dev team, but also for the publisher and platform holder. It’s clear that for him, as with a number of the other independent devs we spoke with, that the most important dimension of settling on and announcing a date is hitting it, avoiding delays.
The consensus is that this applies not only to the finished product, but also to dates for things like open and closed betas or early access releases, even patches or content updates. The sense I got from these conversations is that being responsible to your community, the people directly funding your game (and, in many cases, paying your rent), tends to be more immediately important to independent devs than to larger studios or publishers.
“In a perfect world you get your game done, get it greenlit by everyone, then announce the date about two weeks in advance. Everything else seems unnecessarily dangerous to me.”
But Saltsman also made it clear that picking a date was often beyond his control.
“As with everything else, there are frequently outside pressures around announcing these dates,” he says. “Maybe you have a big press opportunity or promotional thing with a platform coming up, and you have to roll the dice on making that announcement versus missing that date, etc. It’d be nice to always be in an ideal, super-flexible situation, but reality has a way of butting in.”
In Saltsman’s dream scenario, he’s afforded the time he needs to finish and polish a game to a standard he deems acceptable, and then, finished product in hand, declare a firm date.
“In a perfect world you get your game done, get it greenlit by everyone, then announce the date about two weeks in advance,” he says. “Then frustratingly sit there with a completely finished game no one but you and the press can play for that period. Everything else seems unnecessarily dangerous to me.”
For a small publisher like Devolver Digital, on the other hand, a broader view is necessary. While hitting the date it announces is still important, Devolver co-founder Nigel Lowrie says his company’s launch strategies need to accommodate a wide array potential scenarios, such as industry events and other product launches.
“It’s important to look at a few things,” he says. “What other games are already set to release on what days, time to make sure the game is tested, certified on console, and ready to release to the public, whether there are any other major variables like big conventions, sales or announcements expected that should be avoided.”
Lowrie adds that while they try to work with a rough date in mind, “it’s not until the game is about two or three months from our target launch that we really drive to nail down a release date.”
“Typically, we want to announce a date when both the developer and any console partners are very confident in the date and there’s not a lot of other noise expected,” Lowrie notes. “We consider the time of year for sure — certain times are traditionally more crowded with larger triple-A releases and we like to avoid that when we can.”
He also highlights the importance of announcing alongside some kind of flashy, substantive content reveal, another point I heard repeated again and again during these conversations. “Ideally we go out with some new video content, like the Absolver Combat Overview, and attach the news to that so it gives a little more weight to the announcement.”
Absolver‘s 8/29/17 release date was announced on 5/10/17. The announcement
was accompanied by a video showing off the game’s unique combat system.
On the opposite pole of the development spectrum from the indies, triple-A studios face an even more convoluted matrix of factors. While larger studios have more resources to throw at marketing, they also have more complicated relationships to consider, and millions of dollars may hinge on the timing of and announcement and setting up an advertising cycle. For Pete Hines, the VP of marketing and PR at Bethesda, every announcement comes with its own set of considerations and contingencies.
“Most recently with Wolfenstein 2 and The Evil Within 2, we decided to announce the date at the same time we revealed the game at our E3 Showcase,” Hines says. “It really depends on how early we decide to announce, tease, and reveal a game from its actual date.”
Wolfenstein 2 was given a 10/27/17 release date and The Evil Within 2 a 10/13/17 release date. The announcement at the June 11th showcase came out over four months in advance of the planned release. Devolver Digital’s Absolver announcement came three and a half months in advance of the planned release. These time frames are much longer than the two weeks’ worth of notice that Saltsman recommends for indie titles.
“I think the furthest out we’ve announced a specific date was probably for Skyrim, where Todd really wanted to ship on 11.11.11 and he announced that the December before.”
“I think the furthest out we’ve announced a specific date was probably for Skyrim, where Todd really wanted to ship on 11.11.11 and he announced that the December before, during the VGAs,” he adds. “When it’s the guy in charge of the game’s development that says it’s coming out on that date, and that guy is Todd Howard, it’s pretty easy to get everybody else on board with that plan. But in general, it varies game-by-game.”
For a publisher the size of Bethesda, choosing a release date is even more collaborative, with moving pieces at the developer, their partners, and a global network of production and distribution.
“We usually have a target quarter and an idea of a month within that quarter fairly early on, but as we progress through development and things start to get clearer, we start to get more granular and start to focus on when in the month we think we’d like to release it,” says Hines.
“Usually that comes from development giving their best estimate on certification dates and an RTM [release to manufacturing i.e. ‘going gold’] date, and from there we can back out how long production and distribution will take around the globe.” He adds, “If the date we get from backing out from those dates ends up with something bad (like ‘Hey, let’s not ship on Christmas Eve’) then it’s usually a series of conversations with dev about how much slack is built into their schedule, etc., until we come up with a date that everyone can live with.”
And then there’s the PR agency approach, which by necessity needs to be more of an umbrella under which clients of varying sizes and with varying needs can comfortably shelter. For Jesse Radonski of Evolve PR, a firm with clients as diverse as Gearbox, Adult Swim, and CD Projekt Red, one of the first considerations is the competition.
“If a developer hasn’t already devised a date for release, then usually what I consider is the time of the year before researching the dates of significant competition launching in that timeframe,” Radonski says.
“Generally, a developer or publisher will know a quarter that the game is launching in. From there, we just try to make sure that, using an RPG as an example, the RPG doesn’t launch right around another RPG that may overshadow it.”
Of course, a PR firm can only advise and consult; the final decision is the client’s. “I’ve worked with some developers that have dated a game six months out, and others where they announced a date three weeks before launch,” he says. “I urge developers to make sure to ship a game that has its core features in place. Obviously, there’s a different standard of completeness if a game is launching into Early Access, but overall, the game should be feature complete and relatively bug-free.”
“I’ve worked with some developers that have dated a game six months out, and others where they announced a date three weeks before launch.”
“My general rule of thumb is to pre-seed it with press at least 24 hours in advance with an embargo time, so that they have time to prepare an article for when the embargo lifts,” he says. “Then once the embargo lifts, we send the news release wide to whatever regions we’re tasked with sending it to. After that, we usually will have to send some follow-up emails to any outlets that may have missed the news originally.
“I used this approach for the recent announcement of Iron Galaxy and Maximum Games’ action-adventure game, Extinction, and saw it covered on pretty much every well-known outlet in North America and beyond,” adds Radonski. “The key to it is to ensure that what you’re sending is truly newsworthy. Otherwise, your pre-seeding may not be effective.”
The main takeaway from all of the conversations that went into this feature is that regardless of the size of your operation, or the complexity of reaching a consensus that works for everyone involved, the most important part of a release announcement is to accompany the announcement with material that will heighten its impact. Radonski echoes Lowrie’s point about launching alongside a high-quality trailer or big reveal. “New screenshots can be helpful too,” he says.
Play as Yuma Ilvern and stop the Empire from exploiting the power of the ancient dragons, including the soul of the Shining Dragon within you. With the help of your friends, realize your destiny, save Astoria, and unleash the strength you’ve always had locked away.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One, read on below and click on each of the game profiles for pre-order details (dates are subject to change).
Vienna-based developer Mi’pu’mi Games has taken inspiration from its home city for The Lion’s Song, a four-part narrative adventure. The world ‘adventure’ conjures images of swashbuckling and derring-do but this is a more meditative point-and-click experience. The Austrian capital was a hub of artistic and scientific endeavour at the turn of the 20th century and in that setting you’ll spend your time searching for inspiration in the every day, negotiating oppressive social norms and battling personal demons. No pirates or talking beasties here!
The four episodes compiled for this Switch release previously appeared on PC and mobile and each is immediately accessible from the main menu. Each self-contained chapter follows a different protagonist but their stories overlap, connecting in various ways depending on your choices, with recurring characters and locations. Episode one revolves around Wilma, a gifted young violinist having difficulties composing a piece following an incredible debut. Infatuated with her tutor, she retreats to an isolated cabin in the mountains at his suggestion in order to work in solitude.
Episode two focuses on aspiring artist Franz, struggling to develop his eye and understand both himself and his subjects while capturing their multi-faceted personalities on canvas. Episode three sees mathematician Emma fighting a numerical conundrum as well as the restrictive gender politics of her era, while Episode four – appropriately titled ‘Closure’ – poignantly links the previous stories. Although the protagonists are fictional, many luminaries from the artistic and scientific fields get name-checked and you’ll likely cross paths with Gustav Klimt, Freud and Wittgenstein on your journey.
As you can see from the screenshots, the pixel aesthetic gives a period feel – imagine a sepia-toned Thimbleweed Park without the verb menu and you’re not far off. However, while you won’t be investigating murders or insult-sword-fighting in pre-war Vienna, dramatic framing and subtle graphical flourishes keep things visually striking. Environmental elements illuminate as your protagonist’s thought process develops; ghostly character outlines appear and hang in mid-air; mathematical equations and graph curves snake across furniture. It all looks sumptuously rich and sharp with wonderful animation.
There’s a cinematic influence in the direction of these scenes and the surreal elements that convey the characters’ perception of the world. They find inspiration in their everyday surroundings – figures appear and leave outlines that dissolve with audio flourishes or the cursor becomes a bouncing musical note as Wilma finds a melody. Sound is an integral part of the experience – whether it’s chalk on a blackboard, birdsong in the countryside or a character’s heartbeat – and a good pair of headphones will enhance the experience.
As with other point-and-click adventures that have appeared on Switch, The Lion’s Song disappointingly lacks pointer controls. Perhaps more surprisingly, the touchscreen also goes unsupported. Elsewhere this would be a significant drawback, but the tranquil nature of the gameplay and its lack of intricate verb menus or UI elements mean the stick-controlled cursor feels just fine in practice.
Tapping ‘A’ speeds up and skips text, though you’ll want to read everything as the writing is generally top drawer. Upon completion of an episode, you can review your decisions against those of other players – ‘11% didn’t talk about X to Y either’ – and you have the option to return to those decisive scenes and make different choices to uncover new ‘connections’. These unlock achievements viewable in a special gallery from the main menu. It’s a neat way of enabling you to explore the other narrative branches without replaying great swathes of the game.
Not that a replay would take long – The Lion’s Song is a pleasantly brief experience. Each episode lasts between 30 minutes to an hour. While this may seem short, it suits the game’s tone – it feels like a short novel and is best consumed in a comfy chair over a sitting or two with a glass of something nice. It certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome.
It’s a delicate game with choices that unlock opportunities for reflection and rely on memory and intuition rather than skill or dexterity. You might be asked to recall a particular conversation in order to reveal a new side of a subject’s personality or scroll back and forth to reveal a diagram representing earlier work on your mathematical problem. Puzzles are not the focus and the interactions are agreeably engaging rather than taxing. You won’t encounter the frustrations common to the genre – there are no objects to use in obscure, unorthodox ways – and this enables a gentle, pensive game that gives you time to meditate on some mighty big subjects of the human condition.
Conclusion
An emotional story that weaves big themes across its episodes, The Lion’s Song is a poignant point-and-click adventure with excellent audio, a beautiful art style and great writing. The exploration of its subjects isn’t muddied with obstinate riddles or ill-fitting mechanics and it’s a satisfying, albeit brief, experience that is absolutely worthy of your time.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale wraps up in 24 hours! Take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games in the final day of the sale.
Thanks to all that played the 2018 Summer Salien Game!
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-11-2018, 01:17 AM - Forum: Minecraft
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Update Aquatic OUT TODAY on mobile, consoles + more
Take a deep breath and dive into a vibrant new world beneath the surface! Full of marine life, new mobs and colourful sea-nery, Minecraft’s oceans are about to get their biggest update yet.
The Minecraft: Update Aquatic is out today on Windows 10, Xbox One, VR, mobile devices and Nintendo Switch! Java players can expect to see the Update Aquatic available on PC before the end of July.
A WORLD OF NEW CREATURES The oceans of the Overworld are populated by both fish and foe alike. Some will fight you, while others will become your buddy! Play with the dolphins, swim with majestic turtles, or brawl with the hostile Drowned. And if you do come up for air, watch out for the Phantom soaring the skies!
EXPLORE THE DEPTHS Swim through a paradise of colourful reefs, deep sea trenches, and kelp forests – all filled with neat new blocks to use in your builds! Legend also speaks about shipwrecks and forgotten ruins, rumoured to hold treasures for any adventurer brave enough to explore them…
WIELD NEW ITEMS It is said that the oceans are home to some mythical items, and only the most daring adventurers reap the rewards! Discover shipwrecks and underwater ruins, take a swing at the Drowned for a chance to earn a mighty trident, or assemble the awesome conduit.
Watch the trailer below, click here to learn more on Minecraft.net, check out your app store in the next few hours to play the update, and share your thoughts in the comments below!
Last Chance to Speak at Hyperledger Global Forum | Deadline is This Friday
Hyperledger Global Forum is the premier event showcasing the real uses of distributed ledger technologies for businesses and how these innovative technologies run live in production networks today. Hyperledger Global Forum unites the industry’s most respected thought leaders, domain experts, and key maintainers behind popular frameworks and tools like Hyperledger Fabric, Sawtooth, Indy, Iroha, Composer, Explorer, and more.
The Hyperledger Global Forum agenda will include both technical and enterprise tracks on everything from Distributed Ledger Technologies to Smart Contracts 101; roadmaps for Hyperledger projects; cross-industry keynotes and panels on use-cases in development, and much more. Hyperledger Global Forum will also facilitate social networking for the community to bond.
Learn more about submitting a proposal, review suggested technical and business topics, and see sample submissions. The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, July 13, so apply today!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-10-2018, 09:38 PM - Forum: Windows
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Inside Xbox Episode 5 news recap
Earlier today Inside Xbox Episode 5 aired, continuing to pull back the curtain on Team Xbox to celebrate our games, features, and fans. This episode was full of closer looks at some big upcoming games, including No Man’s Sky, We Happy Few, and Earthfall, as well as the announcement of a huge addition to Xbox Game Pass. So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest news coming out of this month’s episode of Inside Xbox.
Rocket League and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 are Coming to Xbox Game Pass
The Xbox Game Pass catalog continues to grow this week, thanks to the addition of a couple of awesome titles. First up, the much-loved Rocket League, which blends elements of soccer, racing, and demolition derbies together to create a wonderful whole, hits Xbox Game Pass today. Then, tomorrow, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 brings its mix of over-the-top gore and first-person hacking and slashing to the service.
The Sport White Special Edition Xbox One Controller
Featuring beautiful, clean lines and a snazzy design, the latest addition to the Xbox One controller family is a looker. Inspired by sports and sneakers, the Sport White’s got mint green accents and grey and silver patterns to go along with its fresh white design. If you’re a sneaker head, you’ll definitely want one of these. You can snag this sporty beauty at the Microsoft Store and other retailers beginning July 31st in the U.S. and Canada, and then worldwide on August 7th.
A Closer Look at No Man’s Sky
The highly-anticipated space exploration game No Man’s Sky is hitting Xbox One on July 24, so we had Hello Games founder Sean Murray on to share a bit about how excited the team is to be bringing the game to our consoles. He also showed a new video created by the team that breaks down 11 new features, from freighters to alien sidekicks, added to the game since its initial launch, all of which will be available when the game launches on Xbox One.
We Happy Few Adds a Story Mode
The Inside Xbox team was joined by Guillaume Provost from Compulsion Games, the latest studio to join the Microsoft Studios family. Guillaume showed off We Happy Few’s new story mode for the first time, sharing that you’ll be able to see events in the game from multiple perspectives as you play. This is going to be one wild ride, and we can’t wait to see more when the game releases in August.
Surviving an Alien Invasion in Earthfall
Coming to join us from their studio just up the road in Bellevue, the team from developer Holospark gave us a closer look at the upcoming game Earthfall, which releases this coming Friday, July 13. Earthfall is a four-player co-op shooter that tasks players with surviving an alien invasion, and it looks like a blast. Even better, the guys announced that all maps and additions to the game will be absolutely free to anyone who purchases it. There will also be Mixer integration, so save up that Spark to help your friends!
Seasons Change in Forza Horizon 4
To close out the show, the team was joined by some familiar faces from Playground Games, who came on to give fans a closer at this highly-anticipated (and absolutely gorgeous) Xbox One racing game. This segment lead into a special live-stream on mixer.com/forzamotorsport , where the team at Playground Games highlighted the summer season, including interviews with the team and community Q&A.
Thanks to everyone who tuned in! We hope you enjoyed the show and we can’t wait to tell you all about next month’s episode in a few weeks.
Apple still considering foldable iPhones with flexible displays
Apple is still examining the possibility of creating a mobile device with a large screen that can be compacted into a smaller size, using a flexible section in the middle of the device to allow the screen to bend enough for it to fold without breaking.
Granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, the patent for “Electronic devices with flexible displays” details how a folding mobile device could be created. While foldable, the device could feasibly have a screen taking up an entire side of the device, similar to a smartphone or tablet, but with one cohesive display rather than using two or more with a noticeable line in the middle.
According to the patent, the concept relies on using multiple flexible elements in the middle of the device. In the process of flexing the device for the fold, the patent notes there will be a compression of material on the inside of the fold, and a thinning of material on the outside, with the former likely to cause an issue for the display layer.
To counter this problem the patent suggests the use of recesses in the material protecting the display layer in the middle section of the device, reducing the congregating mass and the amount of stress on layers closer to the inside of the fold.
It is said that there could be solid inflexible glass covers for sections of the display that are not affected by the fold, with a flexible cover spanning the gap between the two solid sections. In one implementation, the glass layer can even be bent, supported by a polymer layer for the bend itself, with grooves added to the glass in parallel to the bent section.
Aside from the display, the rest of the hypothetical device would also require flexible materials to cover the outside of the fold, and can possibly even include a hinge in the middle to help keep the bend occurring at one point in the flexible section.
Apple initially filed the application on June 8, 2016, and credits Jiang Ai, Erik A. Uttermann, and Soyoung Kim as inventors.
The latest patent is one in a string of similar applications Apple has submitted to the USPTO over the years.
One filing discovered in October 2017 surfaced at the same time as a rumor claiming Apple is working with LG to produce an OLED iPhone by 2020. Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote a note to investors in March suggesting a similar launch timeframe for the device, adding that the device could also “double up as a tablet,” giving the utility of a larger screen but with the portability of a smartphone.
Another patent granted in November 2016 suggested the use of a hinge and a metal-backed flexible OLED panel to create a foldable smartphone, one that could clip onto clothing for storage when not in use.
Apple has also invested heavily in a new display technology that could help bring such hardware to fruition. MicroLED is effectively a display panel made up of tiny LEDs on a sheet, which aside from potentially offering power savings and a reduced screen thickness, could be used to produce a flexible screen required for a foldable device.
While Apple regularly files patent applications with the USPTO, the publication of an application or the granting of a patent is not necessarily a sign that Apple is actively working on using the technology with its products, nor is it a guarantee it will be usable by consumers in a future release. Though it is plausible to be used in a foldable smartphone, a concept also being examined by Apple’s competitors, it is equally likely elements of this patent could be used in other hardware and not a mobile device.
Lace up your coaching shoes with New Star Soccer Manager, which is out now
By Ian Boudreau10 Jul 2018
As commenters wisely pointed out, there are better mobile options for football gaming than EA’s FIFA Mobile, which has a World Cup mode available now. One of these is New Star Soccer, which was the runner-up for our Sports Game of the Year in 2012 (iOOTP Baseball managed to edge it out for the top slot that year). Now, there’s a new front office layer available: New Star Soccer Manager is out today for iOS devices.
While it keeps a lot of the simple tap-to-kick charm of the original, New Star Soccer Manager adds in scouting and recruitment, additional team management layers, training, and even stadium building. There’s plenty to do off the field, but the updated look and feel of the action on the pitch is certainly welcome as well.
Right now, New Star Soccer Manager is only available for iOS devices, and it’s free to download from the App Store. Developer New Star Games says they have an Android version in the works, but that won’t show up in time for this weekend’s World Cup semifinals, unfortunately.
“It’s important to look at a few things,” he says. “What other games are already set to release on what days, time to make sure the game is tested, certified on console, and ready to release to the public, whether there are any other major variables like big conventions, sales or announcements expected that should be avoided.”
“Most recently with Wolfenstein 2 and The Evil Within 2, we decided to announce the date at the same time we revealed the game at our E3 Showcase,” Hines says. “It really depends on how early we decide to announce, tease, and reveal a game from its actual date.”
“If a developer hasn’t already devised a date for release, then usually what I consider is the time of the year before researching the dates of significant competition launching in that timeframe,” Radonski says.
