While hockey video game fans await the worldwide launch of EA Sports NHL 21 on October 15, EA Sports has announced another all-new NHL game. Well, not exactly all new. Players who pre-order NHL 21 from the Microsoft Store for Xbox will also receive a copy of NHL 94 Rewind, a game that uses the controls and graphics of the classic NHL 94, combined with teams and rosters from the present day NHL.
The cover athlete of NHL 21, Alexander Ovechkin, appears on the cover of NHL 94 Rewind too — although in 8-bit (complete with missing tooth pixel). He’s just one of hundreds of players who will be transported back in time with NHL 94 Rewind. Last year’s cover athlete, Auston Matthews, wouldn’t be born until four years after the release of the original NHL 94.
NHL 94 is often considered to be one of the most innovative, best crafted, and timeless sports games ever. The title has amassed a devoted following and 27 years later is still being played by old-school hockey video game fans around the world. The announcement of NHL 94 Rewind is the latest chapter in the game’s storied history.
Video: Facing down failure as a freelancing game dev
Freelancing comes with many failures and intimidations but some friendly advice can help game developers learn to roll with those punches and make the most of their project-to-project aspirations.
In this GDC Summer AMA, writer, narrative designer, and freelance extraordinaire Zaire Lanier fields questions from freelance-curious attendees and offers advice on how devs can go from being a lonely and unsuccessful freelancer to something more.
Learning to navigate the sometimes frequent failures that come with freelancing takes time and many people don’t realize the amount of effort it takes to get even a toe in the door, making chats like the one embedded above with Zaire all the more valuable to the game dev community.
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.
Every good level tells a story – a treasured dream that a player can share with their friends. Stories like “Sooo… I forgot that fire spreads in this game? All those bombs I stacked up went off in my face, and it left me at one health. I was *shaking*.” To the player, that experience was one of a kind, and 100% theirs. But their silent partner – the person who put that chemistry set in place next to a big, tempting button saying DO NOT TOUCH … that was you.
Other times, the story of a level is that all the NPCs spawned inside the geometry and stacked up on each other endlessly, unable to reach anything and begging for the sweet release of death. That was you, too. You push the boundaries of what the game’s scripting can do to make the first kind of story possible – without leaving too many of the second kind hidden in the walls.
Question is seeking a level designer for work on its current and future games. The position is paid, remote full-time work in a highly collaborative (though virtual!) environment. Previous multiplayer level design work is required.
Responsibilities
Create gameplay spaces that are both aesthetically compelling and full of interesting tactical choices.
Research and develop level and spatial concepts, from pitches and concept-sourcing to demonstrable whiteboxes and treatments.
Iterate over existing spaces with art, design, and engineering in order to hit visual, experiential, and performance targets for the game.
Help define pipeline and process for assets with artists and engineers, speaking fluently about tool and process tradeoffs.
Play the game often with the team, proactively seek/solve issues, and offer game design feedback on the holistic product.
Build gyms and other standardized testing harnesses that serve as a metric unit for gameplay.
Requirements
Must live within U.S. time zones from Pacific to Eastern time – We want office hours to overlap.
Due to logistics issues, we can only offer benefits to U.S. residents.
True Collaboration – Applicants must be able to give constructive cross-disciplinary feedback without aggressiveness, and receive feedback without defensiveness. They must be able to build on concepts not their own but advocate for features they believe in.
Communication – Applicants must be able to speak eloquently about game design and get their ideas across both conversationally and visually. We don’t care if PowerPoint, Excel, or watercolors are your muse, so long as you can bend your chosen medium to the task of getting concepts in other people’s brains.
You will eventually have to write succinct documentation with a focus on clarity.
Multiplayer Experience – Shipped at least one multiplayer game as a level designer or have equivalent relevant experience.
Engine Experience – The studio runs on Unreal 4, so obviously experience with it is a plus, but not a requirement. Equivalent experience with other popular engines (e.g. Unity) and a demonstrated penchant for learning and flexibility work just as well. We would rather work with a fast learner than someone who has memorized the correct tool of the moment.
Proactive Generalist – Not in the “do many jobs for the price of one!” sense, but rather the ability to proactively take on temporary roles in a small company (and later relinquish them) rather than let details fall through the cracks.
Preferred Attributes
Familiarity with console development on any modern system (XB1, PS4, PC).
Familiarity with bug and issue tracking software (we use JIRA currently).
Familiarity with online wikis like Confluence.
Scripting experience, visual or otherwise.
Fine/visual art experience.
Working at Question
Our goal, as a studio, is to be able to make games with people that like each other and will grow together as a team that gets stronger with each project.
Part of this is hiring the right people that can sustain a studio in this highly competitive market, and the other part is keeping these skilled employees happy with competitive salaries and benefits within an environment that nurtures autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
We are remotely distributed across North America, with our official headquarters in the San Francisco Bay area.
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
An Iconic Disneyland Ride Is Getting Turned Into A Movie - Report
The popular Disney ride Space Mountain is being adapted into a movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Writer Joby Harold, who is also behind Disney+'s upcoming 2020 Obi-Wan Kenobi series, has been hired to pen the script for the live-action adaptation and serve as producer.
Joining Harold as producer is his wife Tory Tunnell (My Blind Brother) and Rideback Productions (The Lego Movie franchise, Aladdin). Details on the newly hatched project are still fairly barebones--there's no plot or casting information yet--but the movie is expected to have a theatrical rather than streaming release.
Since first debuting at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in 1975 and Disneyland in 1977, Space Mountain has gone on to become practically synonymous with the parks themselves. The indoor roller coaster has riders blast off through a swirling solar field and throttle through many twists and turns--which should provide plenty of thrills and also serve as a good launching pad for big-screen fun. In recent years, the ride has also seen temporarily retheming to become a Star Wars-centric attraction called Hyperspace Mountain.
Amazon have just released a new version of their CryEngine derived game engine, Lumberyard. Lumberyard is free to use, with the source code available, so long as your multiplayer services are either self hosted or use Amazon technologies. The 1.26 release brings several new features, including several around quality of life and usability.
Key features of Lumberyard 1.26 include:
UI 2.0 with updates across the entire user interface
WhiteBox modelling tool improvements
Updates to dynamic terrain and landscape canvas
PhysX physics simulation now production ready
Improvements to Setup Assistant and Project Configurator
RAD Tools support for physics simulation telemetry
Updated and streamlined Viewport Interaction Model (needs to be enabled)
Improved documentation
You can learn a great deal more about the Lumberyard 1.26 release in the release notes or by watching the video below. A great deal of focus was also given to the documentation including a new Welcome Guide to get you up and running.
Review: SanDisk Extreme Pro V2 is the SSD we pack in our bags
The new SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD now features speedy NVMe media inside of its rubberized exterior that is well suited for on-the-go creatives with its compact size and carabiner anchor.
If you haven’t heard the news, SSDs are the way to go. They’re the it thing in storage these daysn and in recent years have continued to drop in price, increase in capacity, and shrink in size.
SanDisk has brought much of that innovation to the new Extreme Portable SSD.
Key specs
Up to 2TB in size
256-bit AES hardware encryption
USB-C
Two meter drop protection
Grippy liquid silione exterior
1050MB/s read and up to 1000MB/s write speeds
IP55 rating
5-year warranty
USB 3.2 Gen 2 port
SanDisk has long been a go-to for photographers with its industry-leading line of SD and MicroSD cards. Lately, it has started to do more with its SSD line, all focusing on being compact, mobile, and reliable.
It’s in that spirit that it has upgraded its popular Extreme Portable SSD.
A sizeable upgrade
In the prior-gen model, SanDisk was using a SATA SSD which capped out at 550MB per second. For this version, SanDisk moved to an NVMe drive, in line with the Extreme Pro Portable SSD. That move, combined with advancement to USB 3.2 Gen 2 has nearly doubled the performance, now capping at an advertised 1,050MB per second read speed and 1,000MB per second write speed.
I always travel with the SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD V2
SanDisk also moved from simple software encryption to full 256-bit AES hardware encryption, which is much more protective of the sensitive data stored within.
Finally, the warranty has been extended from three years to five. SanDisk expects the drive to be an investment that you will carry with you for work or leisure for years without worry.
Performance
To test, we connected our SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD to one of the four Thunderbolt 3 ports on our 2019 Mac Pro. This drive isn’t Thunderbolt 3, but the Thunderbolt ports are compatible with USB-C at up to up to 10Gb per second, matching that of the drive.
Running the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, we saw speeds around 930 megabytes per second for both the write and read speeds. The read speed did average slightly higher than the write speed, as to be expected.
Performance of the Extreme Pro SSD V2
What’s even better is that those are sustained speeds, as it didn’t start off high and then taper off, as we tend to see in drive tests. Those numbers are slightly down from the theoretical advertised speeds, but we are still very happy with those numbers. It is incredibly quick.
In a real-world test, we transferred a 7.71GB video file from our internal drive to the SSD. It only took a hair over 7 seconds to pull off, which equates to just slightly higher than our Blackmagic numbers.
We certainly won’t complain about that.
We then wanted to test transferring a series of files, which tends to take longer. Moving 345 small items averaging around 1MB and measuring 480MB in total took under four seconds to complete.
Should you buy the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD?
There’s something ineffable about the SanDisk Extreme line of SSDs. Our world as Apple fans is made up of devices that are metal and glass and can at times feel cold.
SanDisk’s SSDs don’t mimic Apple with an aluminum exterior as many have, instead feeling warm and comfortable to hold. The clip on the corner gives an extra sense of physical security as it is clipped into (or onto) your bag.
The perfect portable drive?
Nearly every single thing was improved with the V2 of this drive. Better ports, faster speeds, longer warranty, stronger encryption.
The only things SanDisk kept was the design and durability, essentially the parts people loved.
Even though it looks the same, SanDisk made a minor quality of life improvement in increasing the size of the carabiner anchor hole, which makes it even easier to clip on to. The IP55 resistance remains unchanged which protects against dust as well as water jets from any angle.
There are several SSDs in this space that are comparably priced with the SanDisk Extreme, and it matches or exceeds the performance of almost all of them. Most still clock in at the speeds of the original SanDisk Extreme, around 540MB/s.
Editing video with the SanDisk Extreme SSD on our iPad Pro
They also often lack the encryption, warranty, and durability SanDisk offers. If you need even greater performance than the Extreme Portable SSD V2 offers, SanDisk still has you covered with the Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 which tops out at an advertised 2000MB/s.
We used our last generation SanDisk Extreme Pro for years. The USB-C connectivity is well-suited for any modern Mac as well as the iPad Pro and always allowed us to work on the go with ease.
The new Extreme has the same performance as the last-gen Pro model for less cash which is an all-around win in our books.
Wonderful compact form factor
Durable and rugged with drop protection and IP55 rating
Strong encryption
Carabiner clip is great for additional security
Huge improvement in speeds, nearly as high as advertised
USB-C cable and USB-A adapter included
Long 5-year warranty
Only one color option
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The SanDisk Extreme V2 is available in 500GB and 1TB sizes at launch for $109 and $169 respectively. A 2TB configuration is arriving this holiday season.
Nintendo is holding another encore Splatfest in Splatoon 2 later this month. The game's Halloween-themed event, Splatoween, is returning on October 30. Not only that, but you'll also have another chance to snag some spooky headgear in the lead up to the competition.
Unlike a typical Splatfest, Splatoween is a two-day event. It kicks off on October 30 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET and runs until 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET on November 1. Throughout the event, Inkopolis Square will be decked out with Halloween-inspired decorations, and characters will be dressed in costumes.
Like the previous Splatoween, this month's event pits Team Trick against Team Treat. The latter emerged victorious the first time around, but players will have a chance to rewrite history this month. To participate in the event, choose your side from the voting terminal in Inkopolis Square and then jump into Turf War matches throughout the event period.
There have been countless video game delays this year, and another one that looks like it may suffer the same fate is the upcoming survival strategy RPG, Digimon Survive. Although, it wouldn’t be the first time for this particular title.
Following on from the Toei Animation Europe webpage temporarily listing a “January 2021” release window for this title back in August, a recent tweet from the game’s producer Kazumasa Habu (in response to a concerned fan over on Twitter) seems to suggest Bandai Namco will delay the game (again) and promises to share an update on the “situation” soon.
Here is Habu’s full response, courtesy of Gematsu:
“I apologize for worrying you. We’re currently reviewing the development team structure and refocusing the schedule for Digimon Survive. We’re coordinating with all parties concerned and plan to make an announcement on the situation in the near future. I apologize to everyone who has been looking forward to the game, but I ask that you please wait a while longer.”
Digimon Survive was officially confirmed for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018 and was meant to launch on the system in 2019. A year after the original announcement, it was then delayed until 2020 and at this rate, it might not even arrive this year.
Do you think we’ll actually see Digimon Survive before the end of 2020? Share your thoughts below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-11-2020, 07:49 AM - Forum: Lounge
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New Details About HBO Max's Green Lantern TV Series Revealed
Green Lantern at HBO Max has been given the green light straight to series. The ten-episode series is the latest DC addition to HBO Max's lineup following the order of a Peacemaker prequel series for next year.
Announced late last year, we now have plot details for the first time. ComicBook is reporting that the show will showcase the adventures of a series of well-known Lanterns, including Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, and Alan Scott. The series will also feature classic characters such as Kilowog and Sinestro and will introduce new heroes to the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps along the way (here's hoping for a G'nort cameo).
HBO Max has ordered 10 one-hour episodes that will be co-written and executive produced by Seth Grahame-Smith and Marc Guggenheim. Grahame-Smith is serving as showrunner. Both have previously worked on DC productions, with Grahame-Smith on The Lego Batman Movie and Guggenheim with the CW DC Universe. He also co-wrote the 2011 Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds.
