Let’s say a game has been in development for a year, then the world has something major happen that wrecks the economy (recession, pandemic, etc). Does that mean you can adjust the number of sales to be considered profitable?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к Let’s say a game has been in development for a year, then the world has something major happen that wrecks the economy (recession, pandemic, etc). Does that mean you can adjust the number of sales to be considered profitable?

There’s no single answer to your question because there’s a lot of unknown factors. The game may have been in development for a year, but the situation would be very different depending on when the game is scheduled to launch. If the game is very close…

If PC modders do mods that would unlock stuff instantly instead of playing the games normally, and since you guys keep track of stuff like how many players do what in those games they play like new customizations, achievements, and whatever, is there any concern in the dev side about seeing data points being possibly done in a “cheating” way? Like, would that have any impact at all in some way?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к If PC modders do mods that would unlock stuff instantly instead of playing the games normally, and since you guys keep track of stuff like how many players do what in those games they play like new customizations, achievements, and whatever, is there any concern in the dev side about seeing data points being possibly done in a “cheating” way? Like, would that have any impact at all in some way?

We can usually figure out when players are cheating — checking for that kind of thing really isn’t significantly different from checking for achievements and such. We generally don’t care if players choose to cheat as long as they aren’t [griefing] oth…

Marvel Snap, Marvel Contest, CoD Mobile: What makes them a mass market hit?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к Marvel Snap, Marvel Contest, CoD Mobile: What makes them a mass market hit?

What does the stellar mass market success of games like Marvel Snap, Marvel Contest of Champions and CoD Mobile share in common? No, it’s not just that they are all popular IP/Franchises. Find out in this guest post from Om Tandon – industry specialist, game consultant and UX Director.

Did you have team members who actually doesn’t play much games? I’d imagine positions like networking engineer, community manager, or even artists could get by without a lot of game knowledge. Do they contribute something else that gamers don’t?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к Did you have team members who actually doesn’t play much games? I’d imagine positions like networking engineer, community manager, or even artists could get by without a lot of game knowledge. Do they contribute something else that gamers don’t?

While most game devs do play games in some form or other, there are plenty of developers who are much more casual in the kind of games they play, and some who don’t play any at all. The ones who don’t play are usually the ones who are further removed f…

Why aren’t movie tie-in games, especially those that are a story adaptation to the movie’s story they’re loosely based on, really a common thing anymore since the beginning of the last decade?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к Why aren’t movie tie-in games, especially those that are a story adaptation to the movie’s story they’re loosely based on, really a common thing anymore since the beginning of the last decade?

It’s mostly because mobile devices became the platform du jour to publish movie tie-in games and other similar shovelware-style titles. Development costs are lower, turnaround time is faster, expectations are lower, and audiences are larger on mobile, so it makes sense that licensors would go there.

In addition to the rise of mobile, the relationship between a movie tie-in console game’s development cycle and the movie itself was already fraying in the mid to late 2000s. Back when AAA games could be developed by a fairly small (

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Does a licensor offer the developer benefits beside the use of the IP, such as reference assets or facilitating the use of original voice actors?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к Does a licensor offer the developer benefits beside the use of the IP, such as reference assets or facilitating the use of original voice actors?

Sometimes they do! Back when licensed movie games were a thing, I worked on one. The studio I was working for was actually developing two different licensed movie tie-in games at the time and the dev team relationships with the different movie studios …

If the relationship between publishers and developers is collaborative, what about other license owners they base their games or content on like Disney, Universal Studios, or even other game company owners? Aren’t they also driving forces to a dev’s decision for everything involving them as I hear?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к If the relationship between publishers and developers is collaborative, what about other license owners they base their games or content on like Disney, Universal Studios, or even other game company owners? Aren’t they also driving forces to a dev’s decision for everything involving them as I hear?

You are correct — license owners are another set of requirements and approvals that developers must appease in order to ship a game. While the developer’s goal is to make the best game they can, the licensor’s ultimate duty is to make the most out of t…

American Mcgee is trying to get his new game greenlit. I know that his games are profitable and well received. However, it’s taking aver 4 years for a response, and I’m puzzled to why it is so. What exactly causes a company to consider greenleting a game? Does it require more than the creators reputation?

boynextdoornewsОставить коментарий к American Mcgee is trying to get his new game greenlit. I know that his games are profitable and well received. However, it’s taking aver 4 years for a response, and I’m puzzled to why it is so. What exactly causes a company to consider greenleting a game? Does it require more than the creators reputation?

There are many reasons one would pass on a game pitch, many of which have nothing to do with the pitch itself. Finding a publisher is very much like dating — the game being pitched must meet a bunch of the publisher’s needs in order for them to run wit…