We’re almost done with 2017, and after reflecting on our highlights of the year we’re ready to start preparing for the year to come.

Many of our readers are doing the same, and so we thought we’d once again turn to Twitter and put out a call for devs around the world to share their New Year’s resolutions with us — and with you!

This being 2017, “4k” has replaced the venerable “1024×768” as the joke reply du jour. While we haven’t upgraded our hardware enough to get the full impact, it seems like a pretty good goof — and the other, more earnest responses give us some insight into where the game dev community is going in 2018.

Notably, not everyone is purely focused on shipping games. While the lion’s share of replies we received were resolutions to make games, many had to do with seemingly secondary concerns like improving PR savvy, learning new skills, or learning more about game dev scenes in other parts of the world. 

To help you better understand where your fellow devs are headed in the year ahead, we present a curated list of those resolutions below. Feel free to add your own responses in the comments! And if you’re interested in participating in Gamasutra’s next Twitter question, make sure you head over to @Gamasutra and jump on that follow button.

Make games that play to my strengths, rather than just the games I want to see in the world. (Though at the same time, making games that didn’t play to my strengths did slightly increase my ability to do everything I’m weaker at!)

— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) December 28, 2017

Continuing to make and release games (even if it’s slower than 100 games in 5 years) and, rather than being embarrassed by how much code I don’t understand, I’m practicing being grateful for the programming I can do!

— James Earl Cox III (@just404it) December 27, 2017

Continue honing my design and writing chops by crafting quality levels and quests in my spare time.

— Michel Sabbagh ☢️? (@Watfen64) December 27, 2017

Help people to pitch their games better and give more feedback. Also, play more games!

— Daniel Kaplan (@Kappische) December 28, 2017

To continue making my video game (https://t.co/bmbKBTe7d4), get funding, get a team, and make an even better video game.

Ideally without dying from sleep deprivation or exploding from stress (it’s both messy and I don’t think it happens, so it’s doubly embarrassing).

— Trent Polack (@mittense) December 28, 2017

Release a multiplayer game currently in the works, thoroughly enjoy GDC, get back into running three times a week, work on some AR/VR projects, spend more time with family.

— ChewedPixelStudios (@Chewed_Pixel) December 28, 2017

Get a lot of people to join the @modlands community

— Modlands (@modlands) December 28, 2017

I want to get to know the Japanese indie games scene!

— Jasper Oprel (@jasperoprel) December 27, 2017

I’m a programmer by trade but I want to learn a little bit of modeling and animation, working with sounds and music, and then combining everything into a small game

— Trai Corte (@corte_trai) December 27, 2017

Become better at PR

— Walter Ellis (@WalterEllisFun) December 27, 2017

Stay the hell off Twitter.

— Will O’Neill (@willoneill) December 28, 2017

This holiday season is all about giving. Whether you’re giving time to loved ones, giving gifts to family and friends, or giving your stomach more food than it can handle, Xbox wants to make it easy to play together and give together. From December 21 to January 4, you can join Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold for $1 each! Also, you can share your love of gaming by gifting an Xbox Game Pass membership.

Not only are we giving our fans great deals, we have a great opportunity for the Xbox community to give back to kids across the world. Xbox is partnering with GameChanger to make a difference for children in hospitals. For each Xbox Game Pass membership purchased or gifted from December 21 to January 4, Xbox will donate $10 of Xbox Game Pass to hospitals around the world through GameChanger.

Here at Xbox we believe in accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. We also believe that our passionate and awesome community of Xbox fans love to make a difference in people’s lives. That is why we are incredibly excited and humbled to team up with GameChanger this holiday to positively impact the lives of children facing life-threatening illnesses. Over the past several years, Microsoft has partnered with GameChanger and other organizations to place hundreds of thousands of Xbox consoles in hospitals around the world with the goal of providing entertainment to hospitalized children. Now we want to give our great community a chance to get involved as well.

Play 100+ Games for $1

Get your first month of Xbox Game Pass for $1 and spend your holiday with unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One family of devices. With new games added every month, there is always a new adventure waiting for you. All purchases benefit Season of Giving with Xbox. You must be signed in to get this offer (not available for existing members).

Go Gold for $1

Get your first month of Xbox Live Gold for $1! Go Gold for exclusive savings and join the best community of gamers on the most advanced multiplayer network. All purchases benefit Season of Giving with Xbox. You must be signed in to get this offer (not available for existing members).

Already own Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold?

Here’s how you can still get involved with the cause! Give the gift of 100+ games this holiday season by gifting Xbox Game Pass at full price. Also, you can add additional time to your Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold membership at full price.

For every Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold membership you buy or gift, Xbox will donate $10 of Xbox Game Pass to hospitals around the world through Season of Giving with Xbox.

Let’s play together & give together to bring joy to hospitalized children around the world. We hope we can make it a bit easier to make a difference this holiday season. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful end to the year.

In this series of features Nintendo Life contributors will share thoughts on their most memorable games of 2017. This entry by feature writer Arjun Joshi focuses on the year’s new IP from Nintendo – ARMS.

What memorable game really grabbed me this year? Pun intended, it’s ARMS! ARMS is a unique and innovative take on your typical brawler-boxer fighting game, as it gets you moving (if you choose to play with motion controls), relies on mind games and precision, and really makes you feel like you’re in the fighter’s shoes. Sadly, due to the plethora of big N and third-party releases on the Switch since the game’s launch, it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle a tad – but it certainly deserves more than just a swift pick-up-and-play.

Back in January I was lucky enough to attend the Nintendo UK Switch premiere event, and what stole the show for me was the whacky yet intricate beat-em-up. I didn’t think I would say that considering titans like Breath of the Wild were also present to try out at the event, but the pure fun my comrade and I had when throwing both physical and verbal jabs at each other on the wrestling-ring-styled stage could not be topped. I knew there and then that it was a day one purchase for me.

Forward to the Spring, and I was again fortunate enough to attend Nintendo UK’s ‘influencer’ event for the game. I got to learn the game’s deep mechanics – from unique character abilities to a variety of arm combinations – and it really hammered home that there was so much more to consider than it simply being an arm-flailer. I also managed to place 2nd in the tournament that was hosted after we got to learn the game, which topped off the day nicely! The event further cemented that it was a must-have on the Switch due to the amount of fun we all had with it, and that there was so much more to explore!

Moving onto the game’s release, I can’t express enough how much enjoyment my pals and I have had with it since. My friends aren’t really “Nintendo gamers” – well, at least compared to me – but we’ve spent a helluva lot of time on ARMS, creating our own tournaments and really getting competitive with it. It shows that the game is accessible enough for newbies to enjoy and pickup instantly, while also offering a deeper layer of mechanics to learn and master for those who’re motivated. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about my beloved Smash Bros., a game I’ve tried time and time again to get my friends into, but for whatever reason they simply can’t grasp. It’s this instant “grab” that makes ARMS special – it’s immediately obvious what the game is about and offers right from the start, but the more you play, the more you want to learn, practice, and implement new strategies.

Regarding control schemes for ARMS, my friends and I have always preferred motion controls via Joy-Cons over Pro Controllers. Sure, the latter provides more of a competitive edge, but for us, actually manipulating your punches etc. with the push of your forearms and the twist of your wrists is the beauty of the game – it really does create that feeling that you are in the fight. But what’s interesting about ARMS is that every character has access to the same arms, if you will, with only their exclusive abilities and handling that makes them different from the next guy with the same arm setup. With that said, it’s great to witness what characters (and their abilities) and arm combinations suit different play styles, especially when you haven’t played a friend for a while, only for them to show up with a completely new setup that throws you off track. You know they’ve been putting the work in elsewhere!

ARMS is an unsung hero among video game releases this year. It provides a new and novel take on fighting games in a way only Nintendo can apply, and offers a great experience for both newbies and veterans. Couple this with a fun selection of modes, a plethora of things to unlock and collect, and copious amounts of free DLC, ARMS is a game that’ll sure keep you both on your seat, and off it!

The Steam Selection Committee has spoken again for the 2017 Steam Awards Nominees. Come back every day from December 21st to January 2nd to vote for each award, and find out the winners on January 3rd!

December 21st 10 AM PST
The “Choices Matter” Award – Games are about agency, and this award is for the game that has it in spades. Maybe it’s because there are 31 ways you can breach into a villains lair. Perhaps there are dozens of potential partners for you to build a romantic future with. Or maybe you find yourself constantly saying “Where oh where should I plant those turnips”? In all three scenarios there is a common bond: the choice was always yours.

-The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
-Divinity: Original Sin 2
-Life is Strange: Before the Storm
-The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
-Dishonored 2

December 22nd 10 AM PST
The “Mom’s Spaghetti” Award – There are games that make you excited. There are games that make you happy. Then there are games so intense that they elicit a physical reaction. We’re talking weak knees. We’re talking sweaty palms. We’re talking fear-induced accidents. We’re talking your friends reminding you to breathe. We’re talking about mom’s spaghetti.

-PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
-Outlast 2
-RESIDENT EVIL 7
-The Evil Within 2
-Alien: Isolation

December 23rd 10 AM PST
The “Labor of Love” Award – This game has been out for a while.  The team is well past the first unveiling of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation.  This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.

-Team Fortress 2
-Warframe
-Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
-Path of Exile
-Crusader Kings II

December 24th 10 AM PST
The “Suspension of Disbelief” Award – Let’s be honest: games can have some pretty ridiculous elements in them… from the stories that drive the action, to the items required to conquer obstacles, to even the protagonists themselves. This award is for the game that has a key component, which when described out of context, seems totally insane, but while playing the game doesn’t even make you bat an eye, because in the moment it makes total sense.

-Saints Row IV
-Goat Simulator
-South Park the Fractured But Whole
-Rocket League
-Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

December 25th 10 AM PST
The “The World Is Grim Enough Let’s Just All Get Along” Award – Games delight and entertain us, giving us much needed breaks from the sorrows and low points of our lives… and let’s be honest, for a lot of people it’s been a rough 2017. That is why the SASC has chosen to celebrate a game that doesn’t involve combat or conflict.

-Stardew Valley
-Cities: Skylines
-Slime Rancher
-ABZU
-To the Moon

December 26th 10 AM PST
The “No Apologies” Award – This award is for the game that you love unconditionally.  Does it have some faults?  Maybe.  Do other people not understand your love for it?  Sure.  But make no mistake.  There is no guilt here.  Only pleasure.

-Rust
-Mount & Blade: Warband
-HuniePop
-Gothic II: Gold Edition
-The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (The Witcher 1)

December 27th 10 AM PST
The “Defies Description” Award – This game is like… well actually it’s more similar to…picture a combination of… ya know what, I can’t describe it, just play it.

-Garry’s Mod
-The Stanley Parable
-Pony Island
-Antichamber
-Doki Doki Literature Club

December 28th 10 AM PST
The “Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs of War” Award – The Bard said it best.  This game doesn’t necessarily offer the biggest explosions… it offers something better.  Potential.  Potential to be a rampaging force of nature.  Or not.  Who knows.  You’re an agent of chaos and no one is going to tell you what to do.

-Just Cause 3
-Total War: Warhammer II
-Broforce
-Red Faction: Guerilla Steam Edition
-Middle-earth: Shadow of War

December 29th 10 AM PST
The “Haunts My Dreams” Award – This award is slightly a misnomer, because this game doesn’t just haunt your dreams. It consumes your thoughts every waking moment of the day. This game doesn’t demand your time. You give it willingly.

-Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
-Dota 2
-Dark Souls III
-Factorio
-Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

December 30th 10 AM PST
The “Soul of Vitruvius” Award – The Vitruvian Man was Leonardo’s celebration of the ideal form. And in that spirit the SASC looks to celebrate the game with the most lovingly rendered character… be it human, alien, anthropomorphic cat people, or even a piece of produce.

-NieR: Automata
-Rise of the Tomb Raider
-Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
-I am Bread
-Bayonetta

December 31st 10 AM PST
The “Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude! 2.0” Award – The Academy wasn’t clear enough in the awards description last year.  Let’s try this again.  This award is for the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” of video games.

-Hotline Miami
-Luna
-Antichamber
-CPU Invaders
-The Evil Within 2

January 1st 10 AM PST
The “Best Soundtrack” Award – There are very few things that can enhance a game better than music. The right song can set the tone for every aspect of gameplay, from simple exploration, to climatic boss fights. This award is for the soundtrack that captured the essence of their game so perfectly that it effortlessly immersed players into the game world.

-Nier: Automata
-Crypt of the Necrodancer
-Undertale
-Cuphead
-Transistor

January 2nd 10 AM PST
The “Even Better Than I Expected” Award – We’ve all been there. You get super excited for a game, you pre-order it, and you anxiously wait as it downloads. Then you finally play it. How do you feel now? If the answer is “Elated beyond words because even I, a conductor aboard the hype train, was blown away with how good this thing was” then you have found the perfect candidate for this award.

-Assassin’s Creed Origins
-Cuphead
-Call of Duty: WWII
-Hollow Knight
-Sonic Mania

VOTING RULES
Every day, from December 21st to January 2nd, starting at 10 AM Pacific, a new category will be available for voting. Each category will only be open for voting for 24 hours before moving onto the next category, so be sure to check in every day to vote! The 2017 Steam Award winners will be announced on January 3rd.

Just a quick reminder that the Game Developers Conference and Unity have launched the Unity Student Scholarship, which aims to give 50 students with outstanding Unity projects All Access passes to GDC 2018.

Don’t forget that the deadline to submit your project is this Sunday, December 31, 2017! There is no application cost and students can enter here. 

Of course, the Unity Student Scholarship was created to provide learning and networking opportunities for up and coming developers.

Those selected for the scholarship will receive an all-access pass for GDC 2018, which also includes access to a pre-show kickoff, hosted by GDC on-site before the week begins.

The winners, which will be determined by Unity and GDC experts, will be notified in January 2018. More information about the guidelines and rules for entering the contest are available at the official entry page.

For more information about GDC 2018, including the GDC Conference, Summits, Expo, and VRDC@GDC, visit the show’s official website, and subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas

The first draft of the World Health Organization’s upcoming International Compendium of Diseases revision now lists a description for ‘gaming disorder’ alongside gambling and substance-related addictive disorders.

Due out in 2018, the upcoming 11th revision would mark the first time video game-related addiction has appeared on the diagnostic manual’s pages. Gaming disorder is nested under ‘disorders due to addictive behaviors or substance use’, a category it will share with gambling disorder and varying degrees of alcohol and drug addiction. 

For the purposes of the ICD, gaming disorder is described as a pattern of persistent or recurrent online or offline digital game playing that manifests through impaired control over session frequency and time, over-prioritization of play, and escalation of play despite negative consequences. 

“The behavior pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behavior may be continuous or episodic and recurrent,” reads the entry. “The gaming behavior and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.”

The ICD-11 revision has been in development since 2015, but it was only recently that the first draft of the diagnostic manual was published. If everything goes to plan, the 11th revision will see a release around mid-2018. That revision would then replace the ICD-10, which WHO says was first adopted for widespread use in 1994.

Last month, in the lead up to the Xbox Game Preview launch of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) on Xbox One, we paid a visit to the game’s Creative Director, PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene at the PUBG Corp. studios in Seoul, South Korea for a quick chat powered by you – the Xbox Community – to find out more about the world’s most played and streamed multiplayer game.

While gamers worldwide have been all been looting and shooting to win that elusive chicken dinner on PC, the PUBG development team was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the game for its December 12 console release. Armed with questions from the Xbox Communities in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, we asked Brendan about battle royale gameplay, chicken dinner odds, and his excitement in bringing a whole new community of console gamers to PUBG.

Land, loot, and survive with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, available now on Xbox One via Xbox Game Preview. See you on the island!

In this series of features Nintendo Life contributors will share thoughts on their most memorable games of 2017. This entry by editor Tom Whitehead focuses on an eShop game that may be responsible for his left Joy-Con’s early demise. 

I first played Thumper in 2014 or 2015 at EGX (I honestly can’t remember which year), a gaming expo in the UK. At the time I asked the developer if they were considering Wii U (they politely said they were ‘considering’ it), and had a go of the PC demo. At this point it was a normal game, whereas when it arrived on PC and PS4 some time later it forged a positive reputation as a fantastic VR experience. I was just playing it in plain old 2D on a monitor, but once the headphones were on and I figured out what was happening it became an eye-opening experience. In fact I annoyed everyone I met at the expo by telling them they just had to play it.

The concept is rather unique – you play a metallic beetle/thing that’s propelled along tracks, and you have to turn into corners, ‘hit’ beats and eventually swap lanes, hop, ground pound and do anything to survive. You’re blitzing through a hellish landscape and can only sustain two hits at the most, assuming you have the protective shell – if you lose it you need to earn another one. The soundtrack, meanwhile, is unlike any other game I’ve played – it’s described as ‘rhythm violence’ by the devs, with a soundtrack that hammers you with concussive beats and aggressive synth.

I happened to review the game, but then something relatively rare happened – after publishing the review I kept playing it, again and again and again. Whenever I had a spare 15 minutes I booted it up and played a level; it kept drawing me back.

It appeals to me in two different ways. There’s the challenge of trying to actually clear it, which is brutal; the final couple of levels are some of the toughest I’ve faced in any game in recent times, and I consider myself to be decent at rhythm games. Then there’s the option to tackle levels as one-off challenges. In the campaign dying puts you back to a checkpoint, but I like tackling levels 2, 3 and 4 in ‘Play +’, where you have one chance to clear the whole thing with no continues. I love chasing my own scores and uploading them online, then scratching my head at how the top scores in the global leaderboard are even possible.

It’s Play + that I still go back to regularly, and the way I enjoy the game has evolved. In the early days it was the tension and the challenge that drew me in, and I would become aware that I was gripping the Switch that bit too tightly as the struggle intensified. In fact, my original left Joy-Con died a couple of months ago, which may be from me pushing the stick too hard in games like Thumper. In truth the Joy-Con do have shoddy analogue sticks, nowhere near the build quality of a Pro Controller – perhaps I had an unlucky set.

As time has passed I’ve started to enjoy the game as a nice way to unwind, firing up those favoured levels and spending 10-15 minutes on a run. I know the stages well, now, but still compete with my high score each time around.

I always play on the portable, too, because it has no input lag. I have a TV with a good ‘Game Mode’, and in 99% of games I sense no real input lag – with Thumper, though, it becomes noticeable, especially in tough sections where every millisecond counts. I hear that another way to get zero input lag is to play in VR, and that it’s a fantastic experience with the technology; if ever I get a VR headset Thumper will be the first game I buy.

And so it’s my left-field ‘Indie’ submission for memorable games of the year. The split-second reactions, the thumping soundtrack that occasionally gives way to brief respite and gorgeous sweeping notes, and visuals that are both hellish and beautiful. It’s a wonderful video game, and there’s nothing else like it (or even close) on the Switch eShop.