Original link: https://markonreview.com/2023/09/04/markon-review-express-weekly-6/
Weekly directory
general information
- GamesRadar+: Sonic Superstar dev team thinks pixel art won’t be a ‘viable’ art style in 10 years
- Polygon: Award-Winning Editor Makes His Own Zelda Live-Action Trailer, Explains His (Dark) Fantasy
- Polygon Interviews Starfield Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo About Building a Universe Full of History and Culture
- The Making of Karateka: Setting a New Standard in Classic Game Preservation
- Polygon: The groundbreaking TTRPG “Traveler” contributed to the birth of “Starry Sky”
- Xbox Wire Talks Under the Blue Waves: A Story of Hope for the Future
Market Dynamics
- Game Developer: PlayStation Portal is just a PS5 repertoire
- Gaming VC activity remains subdued in Q2 2023
- Securities analysts comment on the situation of three listed independent publishers, Team17 is relatively good, Devolver and TinyBuild are worrying
- Cloud streaming service GeForce Now to cease operations in Russia
- GamesBeat: According to Data.ai and IDC’s first half of 2023 reports, game consumer spending is stagnant
- Game Stuff: The end of cheap money in games
- GamesIndustry: Xbox talks Starfield’s “comet” release, how indie games support subscription services, and the value Activision Blizzard brings to Microsoft
- PC Gamer: Succession Writer Lucy Prebble Considering Returning to Gaming
point of view discussion
- GamesIndustry: Xbox at a Crossroads
- GameDiscoverCo: What Steam Reviews Tell Us About Your Game
- Game Stuff: Why Generative AI NPCs Are Overhyped
- Kotaku: ‘FF16’ Gets Criticized For Superficial Treatment Of Slavery
- Unwinnable: Discuss the role and meaning of “wilderness” in the game
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general information
GamesRadar+: Sonic Superstar dev team thinks pixel art won’t be a ‘viable’ art style in 10 years
During the Cologne Game Show, Takashi Iizuka, the producer of “Sonic Superstars” and the head of Sonic Team, said in an interview with GamesRadar+ that “Sonic Superstars”, which uses the classic 2D side-scrolling gameplay, explores 3D gameplay “Sonic Frontiers” (Sonic Frontiers) has similar importance as a development platform for 2D and 3D Sonic.
As a part of 2D Sonic, “Sonic Superstar” does not use pixel art like the similarly positioned “Sonic Mania” (Sonic Mania). In this regard, Iizuka said that although the classic pixel art of the series is great, “when thinking about the next 10 to 20 years, the team does not think that this art style or presentation method is feasible for players.” The content presented in Sonic will continue to evolve and introduce new ones in the future.
Source: GamesRadar+ by Ali Jones
Polygon: Award-Winning Editor Makes His Own Zelda Live-Action Trailer, Explains His (Dark) Fantasy
Webby Award-winning editor, writer (and “Twin Peaks” season 3 evangelist) Dom Nero recently released a homemade live-action trailer for The Legend of Zelda , capitalizing on his departure. In the spare time of a few weeks, Nero decided to infuse the (dark) fantasies it has always had with this retro-styled trailer, somewhat bringing them to life.
The author also talks about some of his influences, such as his belief that Ridley Scott’s 1985 film “Legend” is very similar to “The Legend of Zelda”, and they are not afraid of to explore uncomfortable themes, emotions.
Nero thinks contemporary fantasy films are “too safe” and often don’t have much to absorb — aside from “being Mario is cool,” and kids can learn from The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Movie) What did you learn? He also quotes legendary puppeteer Frank Oz: “It’s not healthy to make kids feel safe all the time”; this doesn’t mean creating trauma with a movie geared towards kids, but as the Dark Lord character puts it. , “Without darkness, where is the light?”
In addition, the author also introduced the dark fantasy style “The Legend of Zelda” movie script written after his departure. The movie is tentatively named “A Link to the Lost Age”. Nero shared the outline of the script and expressed his welcome to Nintendo and Universal. The film industry contacted and filmed.
Source: Polygon by Dom Nero
Polygon Interviews Starfield Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo About Building a Universe Full of History and Culture
As Bethesda’s space-themed RPG “Starfield” (Starfield) is about to be released, the lead designer of the work, Emil Pagliarulo, accepted an interview with Polygon. The two sides discussed Bethesda’s main considerations when creating a large and believable universe for “Starfield” Some of the questions, the author extracted some key information from the interview record:
Pagliarulo is responsible for the main missions, the main storyline, and the advanced mission lines of the factions and city-states. He will work with the design team to improve the game content based on the story. The overall workflow is similar to that of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) It’s similar to Starry Night, but “Starry Sky” adds the work of compiling the timeline of the development of the universe over hundreds of years.
The development team wanted to ask bigger questions than most similar sci-fi games, and to this end, they created two new religions that players can interact with, Sanctum Universum and Enlightened, which represent theological and humanistic perspectives, respectively.
Pagliarulo said that the game tries to explore the grand question of “Why do we want to go into space, and what do we hope to find?” There is an expedition organization called “Constellation” in the game, which represents a desire and exploration of the unknown.
Source: Polygon by Owen S. Good
The Making of Karateka: Setting a New Standard in Classic Game Preservation
The Making of Karateka, which was revealed earlier this year at the ID@Xbox launch event, is now officially on sale as part of Digital Eclipse’s new “Gold Master Series” focused on game protection, which will focus on Documentaries of classic games, detailed behind-the-scenes materials and information, etc. are packaged into one game; the protagonist game of the first game in the series is “Karateka” (Karate), which was first released on the Apple II in 1984, from “Prince of Persia” (Prince of Persia). Jordan Mechner, creator of Persia.
The Making of Karateka includes several playable versions of Karateka during its development cycle, such as the Apple II version, Commodore 64 version, Mike Mika remake, etc., and also includes related concept designs, manuscripts, notes, videos Interviews, etc., Chris Kohler, editorial director of Digital Eclipse, said, “everything is arranged in chronological order” and “everything is arranged in an orderly manner so that it can tell a story”. For Kohler, Karateka is a testament to all the great concepts of Prince of Persia—the cinematic setting, the moving score, the rotoscoping, the incredible storytelling, and, in a way, it’s “Prince of Persia.” The germination of the concept of “filmed game” has inspired a generation of designers.
Game Developer caught up with Mechner, the creator of Karateka, on the matter, and delved into the process of finishing Karateka with his father. Mechner said that he was able to complete the game with his father’s encouragement and all-round support, and that his 92-year-old father could see “The Making of Karateka” and see his work being remembered and praised, which made Mechner very happy and touched , the resulting excitement goes beyond the detailed and instructive content of the documentary itself. At the end of the article, Mechner said: “Like other endeavors in our family, games are also a family project. It is the bond that connects us.”
Sources: Xbox Wire , by Rich Dickinson; Game Developer , by Sam Machkovech
Polygon: The groundbreaking TTRPG “Traveler” contributed to the birth of “Starry Sky”
“Starfield” (Starfield) producer Todd Howard once stated in the publicity that “Starfield” would not be what it is today without the groundbreaking tabletop role-playing game “Traveller”. “Traveler” was first published by Game Designers’ Workshop in 1977, three years after “Dungeon & Dragon” (D&D for short), set in the distant lands where human entrepreneurs and adventurers travel between planets future. Traveler’s mechanics have little in common with D&D, and it’s believed to be the first TTRPG with an entirely different design pedigree from D&D.
On this topic, Polygon interviewed several historians to delve into the game’s nature, origins, impact on the field of electronic and tabletop game design, and more.
Source: Polygon by Charlie Hall
Xbox Wire Talks Under the Blue Waves: A Story of Hope for the Future
In this sneak peek published by Xbox Wire, Quantic Dream editorial manager Max Besnard sits down with Parallel Studio CEO Ronan Coiffec to review the development of Parallel Studio’s latest title, Under The Waves, in an exclusive interview.
Ronan believes that for the 19 members of Parallel Studio, the goals set for “Under the Blue Waves” are quite high: semi-open 3D underwater gameplay, side missions, motion capture, 1970s documentary aesthetic style, message delivery… …Under the Blue Waves was a project that made the team particularly rewarding, genuine and generous.
“Under the Blue Waves” is rich in content and gives players room to explore: on the one hand, follow the taciturn diver Stan to explore nature, Ronan shows that human impact on nature is visible, for better or worse; Our own condition as human beings, our flaws, our relationships with others.
Ronan’s father was in the French Navy, and Ronan traveled the world with his father many times, learning about a world where battleships, oil rigs, and environmental activists collide. These childhood memories helped Ronan build “Under the Blue Waves” from adolescence. A game of symbolic significance – dispelling darkness and awakening hope.
Ronan believes that “Under the Blue Waves” realizes the original intention of Parallel Studio: to provide people with an “escape moment” away from the sea, and gently encourage people to rethink “we can do small things for ourselves, others, and the earth”. Ronan also mentioned that the studio itself pays great attention to implementing biology on a daily basis and doing small things within its capacity, from analyzing the carbon footprint of itself and sudden changes, to providing financial support for whale research.
Source: Xbox Wire , by Max Besnard
Market Dynamics
Game Developer: PlayStation Portal is just a PS5 repertoire
The PS5 streaming controller with screen, which was previously unveiled under the code name “Project Q”, has been officially released under the name PlayStation Portal (Portal for short) during the Cologne Games Show. The device can currently stream PS5 games via Wi-Fi, No Bluetooth, cannot run games independently, and does not support cloud streaming.
Game Developer believes that the emergence of such a peripheral device as Portal means that Sony hopes to increase the interaction between users and game consoles, stimulate game sales, retain the most valuable PS5 players, and come up with a price close to NS Lite. Replicate the portability of NS to a certain extent, allowing PS5 to expand its ecology in more usage scenarios. But this article also points out that in order to convince loyal PS5 users to buy Portal accounts, Sony may still have a lot of work to do, such as convincing users that Portal’s streaming effect is better than the user’s existing equipment or solutions. The author cited Nintendo An example of applying a custom communication protocol on the Wii U, making wireless communication faster and more stable than Wi-Fi, Sony could have done the same (as it did with the Pulse 3D wireless headset).
The author’s final analysis believes that Portal may not need to achieve great success to justify its existence. If it can resonate with Sony’s most engaged user base, then Sony’s attempt will be considered successful.
Source: Game Developer , by James McWhirter
Gaming VC activity remains subdued in Q2 2023
According to the latest 2023 Q2 game industry report released by the consulting agency PitchBook, venture capital investment in the game field is still stagnant at a relatively low level. , a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 29%, and a year-on-year decrease of 57.5% (VC transactions in Q2 2022 have indeed reached their peak). Data show that against the backdrop of strong economic uncertainty and weak macro expectations, venture capital funds are more cautious in their investment and exit slowly.
Source: VentureBeat , by Jordan Fragen
Securities analysts comment on the situation of three listed independent publishers, Team17 is relatively good, Devolver and TinyBuild are worrying
Patrick O’Donnell, an analyst at the securities company Googbody, recently analyzed the recent situation of three listed independent publishers, Devolver, TinyBuild, and Team17.
He first focused on Devolver and TinyBuild, which were listed at the peak of the game industry in 2021. The stock prices of both companies have fallen by more than 90% since their peak in January 2022. O’Donnell believes that they have been affected by the pressure on subscription services. , The amount paid by Sony and Microsoft to the company has declined.
Of the two companies, O’Donnell is more bullish on Devolver’s turnaround, as Devolver’s history of creating blockbusters is more convincing even though some titles have been delayed until next year; the situation with TinyBuild worries O’Donnell because its new title Sales of “Hello Neighbor 2” were disappointing, the company’s adjusted EBIT was down 80%, the new CFO lacked relevant experience, and the new business directions the company was interested in were also challenging. O’Donnell also pointed out that the potential for the two companies to be acquired is rising, and strategic investors such as NetEase, which invested in TinyBuild and Devolver, and Sony, which invested in Devolver, are particularly likely to advance.
Compared with the above two companies, O’Donnell believes that the situation of Team17, a competitor listed in 2018, is better, because Team17 is not listed at the peak of the market, and the management of expectations of itself and the market is also more effective. The company has abundant cash flow, and its The catalog is large, resilient, and related sales are growing steadily.
Source: GamesIndustry by Christopher Dring
Cloud streaming service GeForce Now to cease operations in Russia
Nvidia announced that it will stop the operation of the GeForce Now cloud gaming platform in Russia on October 1. From September 1, Nvidia’s local partners will stop accepting new user registrations and stop selling subscriptions in Russia. The subscription period will exceed October 1. Day users will get a refund. In a related statement, it stated that it could not provide the quality of service that meets the standards or users “expect and deserve” under the “current circumstances”.
Source: PC Gamer , by Jorge Jimenez
GamesBeat: According to Data.ai and IDC’s first half of 2023 reports, game consumer spending is stagnant
According to the 2023 Gaming Spotlight Report recently released by consulting agencies and IDC, the gaming industry is growing less than expected, while consumer spending is falling faster than expected.
In 2023, consumer spending on mobile games will reach $108 billion, home consoles will be $43 billion, and PC/Mac will be $40 billion. Handheld game consoles such as Switch and Steam Deck are expected to generate less than $30. (The change trend in recent years is shown in the attached picture).
From a regional perspective, the Asia-Pacific region occupies a larger share on most platforms, and the report attributes the growth in this region to South Korea.
Global spending on cloud gaming across platforms to grow 50% to $3.8B; handheld console sales as a whole are lagging, largely due to lower interest in end-of-life Switch, but popularity of Steam Deck and ilk is rising .
The product types and monetization methods of the mobile game segment are diversified; the report pointed out that Apple’s “App Tracking Transparency” policy that restricts access to user characteristic data has not yet issued dissatisfaction with mobile advertising, and monetization The impact is greater than the impact on user experience.
Source: VentureBeat , by Jordan Fragen
Game Stuff: The end of cheap money in games
In this article, entrepreneur and investor David Kaye discusses the tightening investment in the game industry and the ways that development teams may respond.
Kaye pointed out that the era of zero interest rates has created the golden age of television, and cheap money has also driven a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the game industry (especially during the epidemic), which has spawned a large number of venture capital firms with billions of available funds to invest in start-up game companies. It provides a rare opportunity for well-known creators to raise tens of millions of dollars and bring their dream games to life.
However, as the title mentioned, the era of cheap money is over, the secondary market reacted first, and its consequences are gradually affecting the entire game industry ecology. Kaye mentioned that many start-up game companies assume that there will be at least one round of financing opportunities before the game goes public. This practice is inherently risky, and today the situation has been exacerbated; round of financing, but now they are advised to find publishers and platform partners to share the risk. For the shift in the VC climate, the authors suggest reading a string of tweets .
Then Kaye also provided some suggestions for the founders to deal with the status quo. As long as the trade-offs are correctly made in development, talented small teams can also create incredible results.
The first is the speed of launching new features, products or services. Speed is not only a result. Teams that release products frequently can often learn, iterate, and improve at low cost and high speed; some developers—especially those with 3A and people with large studio backgrounds──It may be more difficult to integrate into the above situation.
The second is what Kaye calls “Minimum viable fidelity”, which is to find the lowest visual level that is acceptable while attracting the target audience. Setting standards wisely does not mean that the game looks bad. But it doesn’t have to go beyond that level, so that work can be done with fewer people, increasing speed and efficiency. The author also cited three examples that he thinks are worthy of reference: Transistor, Valheim, and Dwarf Fortress.
Source: Game Stuff by David Kaye
GamesIndustry: Xbox talks Starfield’s “comet” release, how indie games support subscription services, and the value Activision Blizzard brings to Microsoft
GamesIndustry recently interviewed Jerret West, chief marketing officer of Xbox. The two parties invested heavily in Microsoft to participate in the Cologne exhibition, the heavy first party “Starfield” (Starfield) will be officially released, and the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is close to completion. The status quo of Xbox Exchanged with development.
Regarding “Starry Sky”, West described its arrival as a “comet” release, that is, such a game only appears every few years and can attract the attention of the entire industry and a wider range of consumers. It is an important moment for many people to join the community. I hope that “Starry Sky” will not only boost sales, but also increase the number of Game Pass subscription service users. Reach out and get involved with the community through Sky.
Then, the two sides discussed the prospect of Microsoft’s subscription service in more depth. West believes that games like “Starry Sky” can undoubtedly attract new consumers, but what really maintains the subscription service is to allow consumers to stay and continue to participate, that is, More interesting titles like “Vampire Survivors”, “Dungeons of Hinterberg”, “Jusant”, “Pentiment”, which people find in subscriptions and maybe don’t want to pay sixty or seventy dollars, this will be an opportunity point for Game Pass. In addition, West believes that independent developers and Game Pass can promote each other, and independent developers will have the opportunity to increase exposure and popularity in subscriptions.
West said that if Activision Blizzard joins Microsoft, it will fill Microsoft’s gap in the field of mobile games and enhance global coverage. In addition, in terms of marketing, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have already had a lot of cooperation experience, and Activision Blizzard will also provide Microsoft with more More guidance.
Source: GamesIndustry by Marie Dealesandri
PC Gamer: Succession Writer Lucy Prebble Is Considering Returning To Gaming
According to PC Gamer, Lucy Prebble, one of the writers of the popular TV series Succession, told the BBC’s Hardtalk program that she has a long-term passion for video games, although her most recent work revolves around Theatre, screen, but games “are doing something really, really excitingly, in a way that no other form can; they (referring to games) are unshakable.”
Prebble said that although many games have dull and predictable plots, this is not a problem unique to game writers. If you play some “very independent, you can even call it ‘artistic’ games”, you are likely to encounter more unpredictable , a more interesting and boldly experimental narrative style. Prebble also mentioned that in the so-called 3A games and masterpieces, there are indeed some mediocre insistence on some kind of violence and some kind of Obstacle-overcoming, but you will find that the same is true of Hollywood movies.
Prebble said that she has been considering returning to the game industry. Part of the reason is that the game industry will reach $160 billion in 2020, while the film industry in the same year is only $41 billion, but the main reason is that games are “to her” Very interesting in form”, in Prebble’s view, games “have not yet reached the limit of their creative capabilities and capacity, because games are still a young art form compared with television or the big screen”, which is why Prebble’s The reason for this obsession.
Source: PC Gamer , by Joshua Wolens
point of view discussion
GamesIndustry: Xbox at a Crossroads
This article from GamesIndustry talks about the ambitions for Microsoft, its Xbox division, the company’s gaming business, and more. The author pointed out that Microsoft is currently coincident with the occurrence of two major events: one is that the company’s most important first-party game “Starfield” (Starfield) in recent years is about to be released, and the other is that Microsoft is getting closer and closer to completing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard , and the author believes that these two things point to two different development directions for Xbox.
The author once wrote an article entitled “Without Activision Blizzard, will Microsoft’s future be brighter” after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was rejected by the CMA. The views in this article are similar and divergent: Activision The addition of Blizzard may be able to improve the problem of Microsoft not having an assembly line to launch masterpieces to a certain extent, but since Microsoft sees the gap between the output quality of its first-party studios and Sony, it should seriously consider the choice of direction, remember to activate ZeniMax and other excellent Its studios, rather than just expanding its territory through huge investments, but at the same time ignoring potential management issues such as “1+1<2”.
Source: GamesIndustry , by Rob Fahey
GameDiscoverCo: What Steam Reviews Tell Us About Your Game
GameDiscoverCo, which focuses on game discovery and purchase behavior, recently published some data analysis conclusions, discussing the relationship between Steam review mechanism and game popularity. The following are some important conclusions of the article:
According to multiple investigations by GameDiscoverCo, we can multiply the number of game reviews by a certain coefficient to estimate game sales, and this coefficient shows a downward trend over time (as shown in the picture). One of the reasons behind this phenomenon is that Steam added a prominent prompt asking users to review games in 2019, and it is also because games that have been on the market for a long time tend to be discounted more aggressively.
The study also pointed out that if the price is significantly reduced, the game will get fewer reviews (after all, some users just took advantage of the cheapness to store the game and did not necessarily play it).
Unsurprisingly, the more a game is played, the more reviews it gets, the longer the average play time, and the more reviews you may get per game sold, and if your game has fewer reviews, the number of reviews versus the number of players The lower percentage may be because your game is aimed at a certain audience.
The statistics found that casual gamers tend to leave shorter reviews, but they still love to play and pay for them.
In addition to the discussion of the above topics, this article also contains a lot of news about game visibility, readers are welcome to refer to it.
Source: GameDiscoverCo , by Simon Carless
Game Stuff: Why Generative AI NPCs Are Overhyped
Entrepreneur and investor David Kaye published an article on his Game Stuff , expressing his views on “NPC supported by generative artificial intelligence”.
Kaye refers to NPCs based on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI NPC for short) as “the most hyped thing in the game industry right now”, and believes that no one will build a startup company that provides “GenAI as a service” for developers, and Calling it “suspicious to doubt this,” he sees the crux of the problem: GenAI is either too important or too trivial for developers to rely on third-party services:
The trivial situation is that in many current demos, generative AI technology may bring minor upgrades to the dialogue between some ordinary NPCs and players, but if this has no substantial impact on the game, then most developers should not feel that this The functionality is very valuable, especially if you also need to pay to access the API.
The overly important situation is that if the GenAI NPC’s dialogue with the player is critical and deeply integrated into the overall game system, then the developer will want to have this technology for themselves, so that it can be heavily customized, and more importantly, the developer You don’t want the core elements of your game to be under the development roadmap of a third party (especially a startup).
However, the author believes that there may be an open source model that is directly integrated into the game and runs locally to drive GenAI NPC.
Source: Game Stuff by David Kaye
Kotaku: ‘FF16’ Gets Criticized For Superficial Treatment Of Slavery
Kotaku published an article discussing the slavery elements that the development team crammed into Final Fantasy XVI (FF16), which the author said was influenced by the political intrigue and political intrigue of Game of Thrones. Brutal and violent in its impact, FF16 does evoke the high-tension, apocalyptic, dramatic emotions expected of the FF series, but it falls flat on worldbuilding when it comes to delivering a nuanced story of enslavement and resistance. above promise.
This article involves important spoilers for “FF16”, so the author will not disclose the main content of the article here, readers can read the original text according to their own situation. The author concludes that depicting slavery in games is indeed a difficult thing, because simply stating slavery as “it’s just a bad thing” does not do justice to the true evil in it. The author didn’t intend to ask “FF16” to be around slavery or emancipation of slaves, but he did question why more attention was not paid to this key world-building element. So long in the making, it feels like a missed opportunity, an “unimaginative failure”.
Source: Kotaku , by Phillip Russell
Unwinnable: Discuss the role and meaning of “wilderness” in the game
This article mainly discusses the multiple meanings and influences of the concept of “Field” in games and real life, and analyzes the complex identity of “Field” as a space, a concept, and a game element from different perspectives , and citing the views of art critic John Berger, discussed the possibility of “wilderness” as a “container” for an event, a certain “event” itself.
The author also focuses on the presentation and meaning of “Wild Field” in different games, especially the many works in the “The Legend of Zelda” (The Legend of Zelda) series. “Wild Field” can have different roles in these games , it may be a simple and unobtrusive background element, or it may be a complex space that contains possibilities and challenges; sometimes the “wilderness” may not only be a stage for players to experience certain events, but itself is worth exploring and experiencing The “event”, it does nothing, it can be designed to make the space more real.
The author mentioned at the end of the article, “Sometimes, reality is boring or empty.” Although I hope to gain valuable experience in the game, the author believes that the space without a clear purpose will make me stop and find the answer of why I want to go there .
Source: Unwinnable by Emily Price
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