Pure Xbox

Holiday 2020 sees the arrival of the next-gen of video game consoles. One of these is the world’s “most powerful” system, the Xbox Series X. In the lead up to its launch, the head of Xbox Phil Spencer is doing everything he can to spread the word.

With this in mind, next week on 12th August he’ll be appearing on Gary Whitta’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons talk show, Animal Talking. Yep, the guy who runs team Xbox is actually going on a Nintendo-themed show. That’s potentially a lot of exposure for Phil, considering how we just found out Animal Crossing’s new entry has now sold over 22 million copies.

As for what will be discussed – we’re guessing the conversation will be all about the Xbox Series X and perhaps we’ll even hear more about Halo Infinite and Project xCloud. In saying this, it doesn’t mean necessarily mean there’ll be any announcements. A lot of the guests simply come on for a casual chat.

Apart from Phil, the singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb and actor Dylan Sprouse will be appearing on the same episode. In recent weeks, Gary has interviewed Selena Gomez, Laura Bailey and Justin Roiland. Will you be tuning in to listen to Phil? Leave a comment down below.

The Pathless is a mythical open-world adventure game coming to the Apple Arcade later this year. Developed by Giant Squid and published by Annapurna Interactive,  The Pathless takes place in a mystical land, invaded by cursed spirits. It’s up to you, an acrobatic huntress, and your incredibly well-trained eagle to bring light back to the world. 

The game gives you a vast map to explore, riddled with secrets and puzzles, not to mention, the cursed spirits that are determined to stop you in your tracks. It’s not too often that a six-minute trailer narrated by a creative director gets us so excited, but The Pathless is an outstanding exception.

The lengthy gameplay walkthrough shows off a lot of cool mechanics and adorable features, such as needing to pet your eagle to keep him clean and flying true. Besides, the track record of Annapurna Interactive alone should trigger any mobile gamers inner curiosity. If you’re looking for a game to get excited about, The Pathless could be it.

Judging by the trailer, the map is navigable quickly by sliding, jumping, and flying on the back of your eagle. Once more, a timing system supercedes the traditional way of aiming down sight, making it more important than ever to hone your archery skills:

The Pathless release date is yet to be confirmed, but we know it’s launching sometime this year, and is coming to iOS via the Apple Arcade, as well as Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems, and both Playstation 5 and 4. So there are multiple ways for our Android friends to get their hands on this fantastic open-world adventure.

Fancy reading up about what games Apple includes with an Apple Arcade subscription? Then you need to check out our Apple Arcade games list.

It’s no secret that the Wii U was a bit of a commercial flop. Why that happened is a topic for another time, but the fact remains that there was a whole mess of great games for the system, and due to it only selling a disappointing 13.5 million units a lot of people missed out on some seriously spicy sausages.

That – and money – is likely one of the reasons Nintendo has been porting so many of its Wii U exclusives to the Nintendo Switch, and the latest addition to this family is Pikmin 3 in the form of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. Have a look at the video above to see why we think this is far from a bad thing, and drop us a comment to let us know how your views compare and/or contrast with our own.

I reckon’ it’s about time to feature one of the fastest animators in the west. You may have recently seen some of his animation work in a pretty awesome montage, or in a few cool images floating about on Twitter. But if you’ve had the high-noon sun in your eyes and haven’t seen any of their work, prepare for some beauty.

Enter: Drexis.

Welcome to the Community Focus. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Drexis: I’m honored to be here. For starters, hello there! My name is Drexler, and I’m most known online for my Destiny themed animation projects and 3D art, like my cinematic video “Collapse”:

I love space, lore, memes, and music (little known fact, I actually play guitar!). I started playing Destiny in 2015, on Christmas day. Though, I had been eyeing the game for about a year before that. Once I got into it, my best friend and I would play almost every day. I’m still addicted! Other than my hobbies and Destiny obsession, I hang out with my brother and sister, and my doggo, Shasta. She’s super sweet.

While I admit I’d seen you around these parts for some time, you definitely caught my eye with a certain… Vex piece. How’d you get into animation?

Drexis: I started animation with Minecraft animations when I was 12 years old. I was so very bad at it in those early years. I made some friends online that were better than me at everything in 3D. A few of them are still my friends actually – shout-out to Harry, who participates in my present-day clan shenanigans in Destiny 2! Anyway, I was a ‘Minecraft animator’ until early 2018, when I saw a YouTube video featuring some Destiny animations by Sami Glitch. I had been playing Destiny for a few years so I leaped at the opportunity to make Destiny-themed animations. I started learning more about 3D, more about art and animation, than I ever had previously. Destiny inspired me to want to pursue a career in 3D art, and I still hope to someday soon.

Have any examples of your work from the early days? Show us how you’ve grown since you started.

Drexis: Back when I made the creations below, I was hand-texturing low-poly game models myself, and the quality suffered quite a bit from my lack of 3D knowledge at the time. Here’s some of my earliest Destiny renders and animations for your viewing pleasure. Warning though, you might need to bleach your eyes out after viewing:

“Ghost doesn’t like being called small” (Animation)

Ace

Guardian

These days, I have better stuff in my portfolio, but I couldn’t have gotten here without those ugly first renders, those wonky first animations. Here’s some more recent stuff:

“Emergence” Destiny 2 Montage

“Awaken” Destiny 2 Montage

And some renders:

Oh, and as Dmg called out above, I also put a tiny hat on a Vex.

One of our editors left a note during our approval process that “Emergence” is one of the “sickest” montages they’ve seen. Good work! What piece of Destiny or Destiny 2 has inspired you most while doing your work?

Drexis: Oh boy, there’s too much inspiration to even list it all. Dreaming City, Cosmodrome, the Nine’s pocket realm inside Drifter’s… what? Asteroid? Giant meatball? Not sure what it is, but it looks really cool in there. I love Destiny’s art direction and all the concepts presented, even the ones that didn’t quite make it to the game, I sometimes get lost browsing hundreds of concept pieces by Bungie’s talented artists. I know many have said it before, but it would be a dream to work at Bungie and get to know the folks behind the space magic.

At this point, it should be expected that we ask you about your loadout. I always love to see which tools of destruction are preferred by artistic minds.

Drexis: Falling Guillotine is my favorite weapon in Destiny 2, as Dark Drinker was in Destiny 1. It’s just the coolest thing ever. It will always be welcome in my loadout. For other weapons, I am currently really enjoying Ruinous Effigy. Slamming that ball into the ground and taking out multiple enemies is satisfying. I’m a Hunter Nightstalker main, and have been since I started playing. Though Arcstrider is my second favorite. As for Kinetic weapons, I like Redrix’s Broadsword, The Supremacy, and Witherhoard.

What’s the best place to find your work? Where can Guardians follow you?

Drexis: If you need to find me, I have a few places for you:

Any advice you have for aspiring artists in the community before you go?

Drexis: I’m not great at advice, but if I had to say something, I’d say stick with it. Motivation is fleeting, and sometimes it’s unreliable. Make yourself sit in front of the computer (or pencil and paper), put on the lo-fi Destiny beats, and move. It can suck, and you might hate what you make at first. But just getting those ideas down, materializing them into existence, is a breeding ground for the best thing you’ve ever made… woah, did I just say that?

That was deep.

Alright, alright, alright! Thanks for featuring me! I hope to see all you Guardians out in the wild, sporting Falling Guillotines and shredding through the enemies of the Last City. Cheers!

That was deep! Maybe someday I’ll graduate from stick figures and start drawing Vex, Fallen, or even Cabal with tiny hats.

Many thanks to Drexis for stopping by, and we’ll see you all again next week for a fresh Community Focus.

Have you been keeping up to date on the latest combat news?  There are some more changes and adjustments since the last Combat Test Snapshot was released.  Be sure to let Mojang Studio’s know your thoughts and suggestions as they continue to develop these changes.

Redesigned aim assist again. A different approach this time, NO LESS CONTROVERSIAL!

• Removed “Coyote Time”

• Entities with bounding boxes that are smaller than 0.9 of a block are inflated (for targeting purposes) to be 0.9 of a block (rabbits, bats, etc)

• Swords always have sweeping attacks again, axes have it with the Sweeping enchantment

• Missing now only puts a 4 tick delay until the next attack regardless of weapon.

• Increased base reach to 3 (was 2.5) and removed bonus reach for delayed attacks

Changes to shields:

• Shields now only protect up to 5 damage for melee attacks (still 100% against projectiles)

• Shields recover faster after an attack

Changes to axes:

• Renamed Chopping to Cleaving

• Removed other weapon enchantments from the enchanting table. The axes simply had too many possible enchantments. It also feels a little bit fitting with a rare Cleaving enchantment than a common Sharpness enchantment for axes

Changes to bows / projectiles:

• Player momentum is added to thrown projectiles, but only in the direction you are aiming

• Bow and arrow accuracy now slowly decreases the longer you pull the bow

Changes to food and hunger:

• Reverted eating time to 32 ticks

• Eating is now interrupted if something hits you

• Natural healing is even faster (2 seconds, was 3 seconds)

• Natural healing drains food 50% slower

• By popular request – Reintroduced the rule that sprinting requires more than 6 points of food

Other changes:

• Removed the attack indicator completely since it is no longer used by any systems

• Fixed knockback calculation

• Fixed damage value on items being off-by-one client-side

• Fixed bug that caused players to be unable to attack/interract after respawning

• Nerfed Sweeping Edge enchantment to 25/33/37.5 percent (was 50/66/75%)

To find the download an links to older threads visit the reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/i5cvlh/combat_test_version_6/

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Burbank, California

Character TDs at Insomniac are responsible for working with the talented team to design, implement and maintain the animation and rigging pipeline.  This role creates character setups, Python tools and basic animations as needed, and works with other departments to solve art related production needs, creates production systems and methods to attain production goals. Go teamwork!  Read on if this sounds interesting-

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

• Creates high quality animation rigs, systems, setups and workflows that help to define the standard for the industry
• Designs, develops and continuously improves character set-up process and systems, including facial setups and animation transfer tools, as it relates to the animation pipeline
• Rigs characters in preparation for animation in Maya. This includes creating skeletons, smooth-binding character models, rigging character faces for lip-synch and facial performances, writing Python tools, and creating custom rigs as needed
• Writes Python scripts that expedite character setup and animation processes
• Works with the Core Dept on improving engine and tools features to advance the state of character performances
• Works with the Art Department on modeling practices to facilitate the set-up process and to advance the visual fidelity of the character performances
• Acts as an intermediary between the animation and programming teams to elucidate the workflows, needs, and terminologies of each team
• Understands (and assist when technical needs arise) the entire process of creating cinematics including set construction, camera setup, character blocking, character animation, animation troubleshooting, and help ensure that scenes run properly on the real-time game engine
• Maintains an expert understanding of skeletons, facial animation methodologies, constraints and other Maya tools and systems used for character animation
• Maintains expert understanding of the Facial Action Coding System and corresponding facial anatomy
• Possesses strong shape-sculpting abilities for both facial rigging and corrective shapes
• Maintains strong understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy
• Maintains awareness of industry leading performance capture and solving techniques, including machine-learning based approaches
• Assists Leads with supervising/mentoring with more junior level Character TD’s
• Other duties may be assigned

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university; or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience
• One to four years of experience in character setup, Python scripting, a familiarity with MEL and a comprehensive understanding of all technical aspects of Maya animation
• One to two years of animation training covering all basic animation principals
• Extensive knowledge of Maya

Other Skills: The ability to articulate thoughts and ideas effectively both verbally and in writing.

If this sound like the opportunity that you have been looking for- we want to hear from you.  Please use the link and apply directly to the role.  Also remember to attach your reel.  Thanks!

Interested? Apply now.

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.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

Tribe Games founder Charles McGregor appeared at GDC Summer today to talk about how would-be game creators can better fuel their creative fire, and perhaps turn a hobby into a profession.

“Before I even start, I do want to say that there is nothing wrong with wanting to just be a hobbyist developer, or a hobbyist at anything in life,” McGregor said. “You don’t always have to try and make a living off of everything that you do. Doing things just for you is valid.”

His goal was to share some advice with fellow game makers about how to best overcome that feeling of always starting new projects, but never finishing them.

Notably, McGregor brought a fresh perspective to this common problem; he’s a young game developer still in the early part of his career, and he described a childhood full of passionate attempts to learn how to design, code, and flesh out his own games.

After years of never finishing anything, he stumbled across a Unity forum post with some advice for would-be game devs who are struggling to make headway: scope out a small project, set a reasonable deadline, and ship it. Even if it’s not great (and it probably won’t be), the act of finishing a game will propel you to finish more projects.

McGregor said the post goaded him into taking on a small project: develop a game for an upcoming school fair where clubs would be showcasing work.

Deadlines are important

“The catch? I had two days to finish it,” said McGregor. He buckled down and managed to ship something; “it was rough, but it was completed. I showed it off at the event, and it went amazingly; sure there were some bugs, and it wasn’t the most amazing game out there, but it was something that was actually finished.”

Elated, he decided to release it to the public and gave himself a strict two-week deadline to get it out. It took two months and a few added features (“discovering that adding in polish took that much time really helped put things in perspective”), but at last McGregor released his first game: a 2D twin-stick shooter called Glitch in the System.

Releasing Glitch in the System opened up the “floodgates” of opportunity for McGregor; he ported the game to mobile, did some public talks, won an award, and got his first paid contracting gig because of it.

More importantly, he says, he began to see how game production works, and how projects can sputter or spiral out of control before the finish line.

“I started to understand what went into finishing a game, because I now had the experience of doing it,” he said. “It was no longer a hazy area…I was able to start working on projects that were much more reasonable in scope, and I better understood what caused my games to bloat.”

McGregor continued to make small games, taking part in game jams and making games with friends in an effort to learn more and experiment with new mechanics.

After two years he’d finished 8 projects of varying sizes, a “stark contrast” to what he’d accomplished before. At some point he was asked to speak in front of a class, and had four days to design a game for the presentation, so he scoped out a game (that would become HyperDot) that he figured would take about four days to finish. It ended up taking four years.

“So…yeah. It doesn’t always work out perfectly every time,” he admitted. “The difference was that I had much more experience dealing with each part of the game.”

Another key difference is that HyperDot is now for sale across PC and console. It’s a well-reviewed minimalist arcade action game with a $20 price tag, and it shows McGregor’s skills have come a long way since that day he was browsing the Unity forums for inspiration.

When you’re stuck, focus on shipping something

Releasing his first game was the big push that helped him get there, and he exhorts fellow devs to do the same thing when they’re feeling stuck. Release it anywhere you like: on a storefront, on a forum, among your friends or family, anywhere.

“When you feel like you’re getting nowhere in your projects…when you feel like you aren’t making progress…when you want to take the next step, try to finish a game,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how small you think that idea is; go through the process of releasing a game.”

Limit scope by setting time limits, not game design goals

McGregor also recommends you use time to limit your scope, suggesting it might be easier to tell yourself “I’m going to make and release a game in one week” or “one month” instead of trying to tell yourself you’re only going to make a small game. Small projects often balloon, but deadlines are only ever met or broken.

Break big game ideas into smaller, more manageable game projects

If you have an idea for a game you’re really excited about, but it seems too big to tackle all at once, great! McGregor recommends you try and break that big idea down into smaller, more manageable game projects you can complete in reasonable amounts of time.

“That way, when you do go back to that big idea, it’s more refined…and you have a better idea of how the entire game will be scoped out,” he said. “The big game will be better in quality.”

“It’s okay for whatever you make to not be the greatest thing,” he concluded. “Glitch in the System wasn’t the greatest thing ever…but I learned from the process of making [it], and you can learn from the process too.”

Ultimately, McGregor hopes this talk can be for others what that forum post was for him: a good reminder, and a kick in the pants to take the next step and finish that game.