Game Dev Quick Links – July 2017 (I’m reading lots of game dev stuff so you don’t have too!)
Each month I put together a few links that get added to the Bristol Games Hub newsletter. As an active games developer, I do read a fair amount around game dev, bizdev and the art and culture of games development. We also get posted links in the hub discussion space and sometimes people send me links. I thought that going forward I’d also try to share the link here on my blog with a few more notes re the context as to why I think they are important.
Here goes…
Looking a SteamSpy data to try and predict success on Steam – This was a great experiment, to see if that data on SteamSpy could be used to predict if a game was going to be a success. Sadly it didn’t yield much, but worth a read.
Video games & the social contract (video):
The guy who does this is more about boardgames than digital games. However his experience trying to play an online PvP title shows some lessons for all devs trying to create a space people want to play in. Worth a watch.
Superhero games show how the industry has changed – Once such titles were huge sellers even if the game was not that great. We have now had some amazing hero titles (Batman’s Arkham series spring to mind) yet the changes in the business models the industry uses, the proliferation of social and mobile has mirrored wider changes in the industry.
E3 2017 press conferences were a contrast between heart and cash – File this in the ongoing series of art vs income. The creative tension here is something I think that does create great games, as well as sink amazing, but less popular ideas. (Which is something crowdfunding then picked up and ran with! As in it might not be valuable enough for a AAA budget, but there are enough fans to back less popular ideas/genres.)
Games as biography – I’d like to write some more that follows on from this. I think it’s amazing that games are reflecting not just our fantasies, but our dreams, losses, experiences, hopes and fears too. That was lies art. (I picked up Cibele from reading this, it’s in my Steam queue now…)
Is high-end VR over? I hope not. VR has not turned into what some had predicted, but it’s a powerful medium and has lots and lots of uses, so I expect it to grow nonetheless.
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Cthulhu Thursday Returns! #CthulhuThursday
I’m been out of action for a good few months (looooonnnngggg story!) and I’d never really interested this blog to be about my personal life, so just wanted to say thanks to those who’ve supported us (you know who you are!)
What better way to return to blogging (which I’ve missed!) than by reviving Cthulhu Thursday. I read/watch/listen/play a lot of mythos content and so this used to be the time I shared it. I plan to return to to posting these for a while, because, well I want too. Feel free to tweet me ideas for things to cover to @tomasrawlings with hashtag #CthulhuThursday. Thanks and here we go down the rabbit Shoggoth hole…
First of we need to talk about Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows comic epic ‘Providence‘. Here’s an image from it – Azathoth as depicted in Providence.
The Lovecraft eZine has a write-up on the first 4 issues. I’ve read to collected parts 1 and 2 (so I think 8 issues?) and am waiting for part 3. It’s … well I don’t know what it is yet. It’s affecting shall we say. I plan to write up my thoughts on it once all of it has been read. There is also his Neconomicon too, which is disturbing. So I plan to wrap my thoughts on all of these sometime soon.
Another link to share is that of Hunting the Yellow Sign, an interesting look at the visuals behind Yellow Sign, from The King in Yellow;
“…inside lay a clasp of black onyx, on which was inlaid a curious symbol or letter in gold. It was neither Arabic nor Chinese, nor, as I found afterwards, did it belong to any human script.”
— Robert W. Chambers, The Yellow Sign, Chapter 2
Finally for this post do please watch the amazing parody of Lovecraft’s From Beyond, as it’s brilliant! See you next week!
(Cthulhu Thursday is a dose of Mythos to brighten darken your week. More on the idea can be found here and a list of posts thus far, here. Also some upcoming Cthulhu news, sign up to the Auroch Digital’s newsletter. Enjoy!)
So long 2016… Here’s comes 2017…
So it’s a farewell to 2016. It’s been a tough year all round politically.
For us a Auroch Digital it has been a positive one in our work…
In February our GameTheNews title ‘Endgame:Syria’ was in ‘50 App Reinventing Modern Gaming‘ (sadly as the news from Syria has continued to be bleak. You can donate to help people there here. We have.)
In June Last Days of Old Earth exited from Early Access – and we’ve been getting happy player comments since.
In July we announced a joint project with Steve Jackson Games an adaptation of the classic Ogre!
Over the course of the year we’ve been drip-feeding more about Dark Future: Blood Red States. We’re super excited about this title and you can catch up here. (We got a great reception from fans at Warhammer World too… Thanks all!)
In newsgames over at GameTheNews we also crowdfunded and launched our first ever physical card game with Wonkette – Elections of US America Elections. You can also check out these reviews of Elections… from God is a Geek and Gameosity. You can buy a copy here too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOubIKqeVHU&t=14s
See you in 2017!
Future Games Summit 2016
I’m on a panel talking about Augmented Reality at this event on 23rd Nov in London
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Dark Future: Blood Red States – Steam Page Live! #DarkFuture
nd We’ve been working on this project for a while now, so very happy to say it’s reach a key point: the Steam page is live! So if you’re a Steam user then please add to your wishlist!
Here’s the original trailer…
And there is lots of good info on the game on the official site: DarkFuture.info
Going to be on Auroch’s Twitch 23rd Sept!
Quick update! I’m going to be joining @AurochJake, our social media manager on Friday 23rd September on Auroch Digital’s new Twitch channel.
We’re going to be playing some of our GameTheNews titles; Endgame:Syria and NarcoGuerra as well as other chats and more.
Here’s how such things look, if you’ve not seen Twitch before:
So just go to twitch.tv/aurochdigital on on Friday GMT 4.30PM /CEST 5.30PM /EDT 11.30AM /PDT 08.30AM and watch us play!
Understanding #PokemonGo in Tweets
As you’ve probably noticed of late, there is a new game mixing the global cultural phenomena of Pokémon with Augmented Reality. Here’s the best tweets I’ve seen on it. So to start with, what is it?
Then you might ask, how does it work?
OK, then you might ask – is it popular. Errr. yes. YES.
https://twitter.com/stuartdredge/status/752245010725269505
So we now know what it, how it works and that it’s done well. What about it’s impact? It’s seems it is getting people out and about in positive ways!
https://twitter.com/natalt/status/754317524599185409
Finally, the combination of a cultural icon with new technology has created moments of zeitgeist:
Which is why all the media is covering it…
A Great Becoming... 