Roblox, the popular programmable sandbox video game, have just announced their intentions to go public, seeking an initial valuation of 8 Billion dollars. After their most recent round of venture capital, Roblox is currently valued at half that, with a 4B$ valuation.
Interestingly according to Reuters Roblox may go public in a very non-conventional way.
Roblox is weighing whether to go public through a traditional initial public offering or a direct listing, the sources said, cautioning that the plans are subject to market conditions.
The sources requested anonymity as the plans are private. Roblox declined to comment.
In a direct listing, no new shares are sold and underwriting banks do not weigh in on the pricing, unlike in an IPO.
By not selling new shares, companies do not dilute the ownership stakes of existing shareholders and the public listing allows current investors to sell shares easily.
Direct listings are relatively rare. Workplace software maker Asana Inc and data analytics company Palantir Technologies on Wednesday became only the third and fourth companies to go public on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing.
So why is this of interest to game developers? Game developers are making a lot of money on the Roblox “platform”, with 2020 earnings expected to reach about 1/4 Billion dollars according to MarketWatch:
Roblox announced in July that it had more than 150 million monthly active users on its platform, which topped the latest numbers from a similar game, “Minecraft.” Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox division announced in May that 126 million people were playing that title each month.
Roblox also offers tools for developers and said in July that its developer community was on pace to earn $250 million in 2020, up from $110 million in 2019.
Games on the Roblox platform include “Adopt Me!,” a virtual-pet title that had over 10 billion plays as of late July, and “Piggy,” which launched in January and had nearly 5 billion visits in just over six months from its launch date.
If you are interested in learning more about Roblox’s developer program, the developer portal is available here. You can learn more about the Roblox IPO in the video below.
The previous article looked at how the Web of Trust works in concept, and how the Web of Trust is implemented at Fedora. In this article, you’ll learn how to do it yourself. The power of this system lies in everybody being able to validate the actions of others—if you know how to validate somebody’s work, you’re contributing to the strength of our shared security.
Choosing a project
Remmina is a remote desktop client written in GTK+. It aims to be useful for system administrators and travelers who need to work with lots of remote computers in front of either large monitors or tiny netbooks. In the current age, where many people must work remotely or at least manage remote servers, the security of a program like Remmina is critical. Even if you do not use it yourself, you can contribute to the Web of Trust by checking it for others.
The question is: how do you know that a given version of Remmina is good, and that the original developer—or distribution server—has not been compromised?
For this tutorial, you’ll use Flatpak and the Flathub repository. Flatpak is intentionally well-suited for making verifiable rebuilds, which is one of the tenets of the Web of Trust. It’s easier to work with since it doesn’t require users to download independent development packages. Flatpak also uses techniques to prevent in‑flight tampering, using hashes to validate its read‑only state. As far as the Web of Trust is concerned, Flatpak is the future.
For this guide, you use Remmina, but this guide generally applies to every application you use. It’s also not exclusive to Flatpak, and the general steps also apply to Fedora’s repositories. In fact, if you’re currently reading this article on Debian or Arch, you can still follow the instructions. If you want to follow along using traditional RPM repositories, make sure to check out this article.
Installing and checking
To install Remmina, use the Software Center or run the following from a terminal:
Open a terminal here and find the following directories using ls -la:
total 44
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 bin
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 etc
drwxr-xr-x. 8 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 lib
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 libexec
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 18644 Aug 25 14:37 manifest.json
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 sbin
drwxr-xr-x. 15 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 share
Getting the hashes
In the bin directory you will find the main binaries of the application, and in lib you find all dependencies that Remmina uses. Now calculate a hash for ./bin/remmina:
sha256sum ./bin/*
This will give you a list of numbers: checksums. Copy them to a temporary file, as this is the current version of Remmina that Flathub is distributing. These numbers have something special: only an exact copy of Remmina can give you the same numbers. Any change in the code—no matter how minor—will produce different numbers.
Like Fedora’s Koji and Bodhi build and update services, Flathub has all its build servers in plain view. In the case of Flathub, look at Buildbot to see who is responsible for the official binaries of a package. Here you will find all of the logs, including all the failed builds and their paper trail.
Getting the source
The main Flathub project is hosted on GitHub, where the exact compile instructions (“manifest” in Flatpak terms) are visible for all to see. Open a new terminal in your Home folder. Clone the instructions, and possible submodules, using one command:
This indicates that you need the GNOME SDK, which you can install with:
flatpak install org.gnome.Sdk//3.38
This provides the latest versions of the Free Desktop and GNOME SDK. There are also additional SDK’s for additional options, but those are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Generating your own hashes
Now that everything is set up, compile your version of Remmina by running:
After this, your terminal will print a lot of text, your fans will start spinning, and you’re compiling Remmina. If things do not go so smoothly, refer to the Flatpak Documentation; troubleshooting is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Once complete, you should have the directory ./build-dir/files/, which should contain the same layout as above. Now the moment of truth: it’s time to generate the hashes for the built project:
sha256sum ./bin/*
You should get exactly the same numbers. This proves that the version on Flathub is indeed the version that the Remmina developers and maintainers intended for you to run. This is great, because this shows that Flathub has not been compromised. The web of trust is strong, and you just made it a bit better.
Going deeper
But what about the ./lib/ directory? And what version of Remmina did you actually compile? This is where the Web of Trust starts to branch. First, you can also double-check the hashes of the ./lib/ directory. Repeat the sha256sum command using a different directory.
But what version of Remmina did you compile? Well, that’s in the Manifest. In the text file you’ll find (usually at the bottom) the git repository and branch that you just used. At the time of this writing, that is:
The last two commands are important, since they ensure that you are looking at the right version of Remmina. Make sure you use the corresponding tag of the Manifest file. you can see everything that you just built.
What if…?
The question on some minds is: what if the hashes don’t match? Quoting a famous novel: “Don’t Panic.” There are multiple legitimate reasons as to why the hashes do not match.
It might be that you are not looking at the same version. If you followed this guide to a T, it should give matching results, but minor errors will cause vastly different results. Repeat the process, and ask for help if you’re unsure if you’re making errors. Perhaps Remmina is in the process of updating.
But if that still doesn’t justify the mismatch in hashes, go to the maintainers of Remmina on Flathub and open an issue. Assume good intentions, but you might be onto something that isn’t totally right.
The most obvious upstream issue is that Remmina does not properly support reproducible builds yet. The code of Remmina needs to be written in such a way that repeating the same action twice, gives the same result. For developers, there is an entire guide on how to do that. If this is the case, there should be an issue on the upstream bug-tracker, and if it is not there, make sure that you create one by explaining your steps and the impact.
If all else fails, and you’ve informed upstream about the discrepancies and they to don’t know what is happening, then it’s time to send an email to the Administrators of Flathub and the developer in question.
Conclusion
At this point, you’ve gone through the entire process of validating a single piece of a bigger picture. Here, you can branch off in different directions:
Try another Flatpak application you like or use regularly
Try the RPM version of Remmina
Do a deep dive into the C code of Remmina
Relax for a day, knowing that the Web of Trust is a collective effort
In the grand scheme of things, we can all carry a small part of responsibility in the Web of Trust. By taking free/libre open source software (FLOSS) concepts and applying them in the real world, you can protect yourself and others. Last but not least, by understanding how the Web of Trust works you can see how FLOSS software provides unique protections.
DC’s Static Shock Movie On The Way From Black Panther Actor
One of the most intriguing new titles announced during the virtual DC FanDome event in August was a Static Shock movie. It's now been reported that Creed and Black Panther actor Michael B. Jordan will co-produce the movie via his production company Outlier Society
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan will join filmmaker Reginald Hudlin to the produce Static Shock. It was Hudlin, who directed House Party in the 1990s and more recently produced Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, who announced the project at FanDome.
In a statement, Jordan said, "I'm proud to be a part of building a new universe centered around Black superheroes; our community deserves that. Outlier Society is committed to bringing to life diverse comic book content across all platforms and we are excited to partner with Reggie and Warner Bros on this initial step."
Kingdom Hearts Director Possibly Teasing Future Switch Project
It was only last month the Kingdom Hearts director, Tetsuya Nomura, was saying there were currently “no specific plans” to bring more games in this particular series to the Nintendo Switch, after the release of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
At the time, though, he did mention how he still found the Switch an appealing device and expressed how it was possible for another game of his to make the jump to Nintendo’s hybrid platform.
Now, following a recent interview with Nintendo Dream, it’s believed Nomura might be teasing something else for the Switch. Here’s exactly what he said at the end of the interview, after an exchange with Masanobu Suzui from Indieszero (translation courtesy of Oni_Dino):
Suzui: It was a rare opportunity for you to appear in a Nintendo Dream article with a Kingdom Hearts title that you were involved in.
Nomura: I’m sure I’ll be back in the not too distant future.
Nomura previously said Square Enix considered porting the mainline Kingdom Hearts to the Switch but found it to be “technologically difficult”. So if there is something else on the way, it may not necessarily be tied to this series.
What else would you like to see Nomura bring to the Switch? Share your thoughts and theories down below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-19-2020, 10:57 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Double Fine Brings Classic LucasArts Titles To Xbox Game Pass Later This Month
Quirky developer Double Fine Productions has announced that its classic LucasArts adventure games--Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango--hit Xbox Game Pass on October 29. This is the first time these games launch on Xbox consoles.
The studio took to Twitter to deliver the news. All three adventure games will be available to all Xbox Game Pass members. Double Fine confirmed in a follow-up tweet that each game will be playable on Android devices, Windows 10 PCs, and Xbox consoles (likely meaning the Xbox One and the forthcoming Xbox Series X/S).
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-19-2020, 10:12 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Sharpen your storytelling skills for games in this GDC Masterclass
Writers and game designers! Veteran game writer Susan O’Connor has a GDC Masterclass for you.
It’s no secret that telling great stories in games is a titantic task, one that requires cooperation from every part of the team. Why not streamline that task with great practical lessons from an industry veteran?
This December, GDC Narrative Summit co-founder Susan O’Connor (who has a whopping 25 games under her belt) will teach you reliable techniques for game storytelling that will support you no matter what kind of game you’re working on.
Even better, she’ll help you create a vocabulary of terms that will help writers and and designers on your team connect and collaborate to achieve a common goal: a great story that can support and be supported by your core game design.
Here are some other key takeaways from O’Connor’s class:
Learn which questions you should be asking about a game’s story from a writer whose writing credits include franchises such as BioShock, Far Cry, Tomb Raider, and more.
Discover ways to build a story around gameplay.
Learn how to better understand the player’s mind so you can deliver the best story possible.
Find out what writers need to know about game design and what designers need to know about story.
Discover techniques for how writers and designers can consistently find common ground and work together to make better games.
As your instructor O’Connor also brings the knowledge and insight she’s picked up as an educator at UT Austin. You won’t just get industry experience, you’ll be guided by an expert who knows how to turn practical lessons into teachable moments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-19-2020, 10:12 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Video: Why your game community is now a marketing asset
In this 2018 GDC session, PlayBrain’s Mike Sheetal explains how Frictionless Marketing is turning community teams into the core of the marketing department.
This session will cover some of the new media strategies emerging from community activities and how to execute them. For developers looking to grow their playerbase by capitalizing on their community activities, this talk is for you!
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.
Grant Kirkhope’s Goal Is To Compose For Illumination’s Super Mario Movie
Legendary video game composer, Grant Kirkhope, recently revealed on the podcast Kiwi Talks that his goal in the immediate future is to compose for Illumination’s CGI Mario Movie – scheduled to make its big-screen debut in 2022.
“I know Mario and I know working with Nintendo, I know what they’re like about protecting their music, and they’re very….they want you to respect the character and I’ve got that, I know how to respect Mario and I really think I could do a good job with the Mario movie.”
His concern is that he’ll “probably” get nowhere near it, because they’ll hire some “Hollywood triple-A guy” instead, but he still thinks he could do a good job.
“So I’m trying to get myself in the frame for that, I have a few little connections that are probably going to go nowhere, but I’m actively trying to do something about that…but I doubt very strongly I’d get anywhere near it.”
Not long after this, Kirkhope restated his case as to why he should be given this opportunity:
“Nintendo know me well, so like you know…Nintendo are going to be super protective about that IP because that’s their biggest IP they have.”
“They know how respecful I am of their properties, they’ve worked with me before, they know that I’m completely easy to work with, I’ll do whatever they want, so you know I feel like…I just feel like you know, I could do a good job.”
“I would pour my entire life and soul into that project for as long as it takes to make it briiliant.”
A Change.org petition has now been set up to help Grant Kirhope get noticed by Nintendo and Universal and score his dream job after he joked to “get a petition going”. Feel free to sign it yourself and show your support.
Would you like to see this industry legend compose for the upcoming Super Mario movie? Tell us down below and be sure to spread the word.
Poll: Box Art Brawl #64 – International Superstar Soccer 98
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the series where we throw two or more regional box art variants into a ring and watch them kick seven shades out of each other in a fight for your vote.
Last time we watched Advance Wars: Dual Strike give itself fifteen birthday bumps in a two-way bout between East and West. It appears that the overwhelming majority of you didn’t appreciate the toy town warfare the models on the Japanese cover conveyed, so North America and Europe sailed to a convincing victory with over 85% of the vote.
This week, we thought Switch-owning football fans could do with a pick-me-up following the release of the thoroughly depressing ‘Legacy’ edition of FIFA 21. Yes, for Brawl #64 we’re journeying back to an appropriately 64-bit era when football games on Nintendo consoles weren’t simply ‘good enough’, or even ‘great’ — no, ISS 98 was bloody fantastic. We watched its predecessor in a classic exhibition match back in Brawl #29, but it’s time for the sequel.
Grab your jumpers for goalposts, and let’s kick things off in this highly irregular three-way match.
Europe
As you can see above, European countries got one of two covers. In the UK, for example, we had Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli having a stare out against Paul Ince. Alternatively, elsewhere German goalie Andy Köpke replaced the Englishman, although instead of eyeballing the Italian he’s looking into the camera with a face that seems to say “Why is it always me?”.
We like the simplicity here — the black and white photo given a splash of colour from the logo at the bottom and the Konami logo running down the left side. It’s subtle and striking all-at-once. Not bad.
North America
The North American cover isn’t short on colour, that’s for sure, although it’s not much more dynamic than the previous game’s NA cover. Konami went with the flamboyant stylings of Colombian star Carlos Valderrama here, and as one of the most recognisable footballers in history, it’s nice to see him, we guess. At 37 by the time the game came out, though, he wasn’t at the top of his game and his presence feels a bit odd.
Our main quibble is that they’ve managed to make a cover featuring Carlos Valderrama (‘International Superstar’, if you weren’t aware) so spectacularly static and boring. It’s quite a feat.
Japan
The Japanese version of the game came out earlier and boasted the World Cup France 98 licence. Therefore, in Japan the game featured off-brand Woody Woodpecker ‘Footix’, the competition mascot that year.
There’s not much else to say about this generic cover really — as a licenced product, having the brand and logo front-and-centre must have done the job on store shelves. There’s an awful lot of white here, and you could easily slap this image on any piece of merch. Uninspiring, but functional.
So, you’ve seen the three (well, four) options, but which is best? Pick your favourite and hit ‘Vote’ to let us know:
And the whistle has been blown. We’ll be back for another game next week — until then, have a wonderful one.
