Game Development | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 03 Jan 2024 07:27:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Game Development | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Square Enix will ramp up use of AI tools in game development this year https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/square-enix-will-ramp-up-use-of-ai-tools-in-game-development-this-year/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/square-enix-will-ramp-up-use-of-ai-tools-in-game-development-this-year/#respond Tue, 02 Jan 2024 13:30:29 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=642246 Square Enix is gearing up for 2024 with a strategic shift towards AI technologies, following the previous year's investments in blockchain and NFTs. CEO Takashi Kiryu highlighted the company's focus on AI tools for content creation, which shouldn't be too surprising considering how bullish Square Enix usually is when it comes to new technologies.  The …

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Square Enix is gearing up for 2024 with a strategic shift towards AI technologies, following the previous year's investments in blockchain and NFTs. CEO Takashi Kiryu highlighted the company's focus on AI tools for content creation, which shouldn't be too surprising considering how bullish Square Enix usually is when it comes to new technologies. 

The AI industry witnessed significant growth in 2023, prompting Square Enix to aggressively integrate these technologies. Kiryu stated, “Our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts.” The long-term vision involves leveraging AI for creating innovative content, recognising the inherent business opportunities in technological advancements.

Regarding blockchain, Kiryu mentioned ongoing efforts and a focus on three key investment fields: blockchain entertainment/Web 3.0, AI, and the cloud. Square Enix is actively adjusting its organizational structure and resource allocations to support these initiatives.

Elsewhere in the letter there are also hints at Square Enix expanding its multi-platform efforts once again, something that has taken a bit of a back seat for recent major games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and its upcoming sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, as well as Final Fantasy 16, which is currently still a PS5 exclusive. Smaller titles, like Octopath Traveler 2, were released across Nintendo and Sony platforms, as well as PC, while skipping Xbox. We hope to see Square Enix targeting Xbox and PC growth in the year ahead, starting with the launch of Final Fantasy 14 for Xbox later this year.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: AI tools are being used in all kinds of industries now and we should expect big publishers like Square Enix to show interest in utilising them. Still, the industry needs to be careful not to cut out creative voices in the process. 

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Netflix to add video games to its streaming library https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/netflix-to-add-video-games-to-its-streaming-library/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/netflix-to-add-video-games-to-its-streaming-library/#respond Thu, 15 Jul 2021 09:19:50 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=523410 Back in May, we learned that Netflix was mulling over a bigger push into the video game industry and was looking to hire experienced industry veterans to help. Now, it seems that Netflix has made its first big gaming hire, putting former Oculus exec, Mike Verdu, as VP of game development.  According to Bloomberg, Mike …

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Back in May, we learned that Netflix was mulling over a bigger push into the video game industry and was looking to hire experienced industry veterans to help. Now, it seems that Netflix has made its first big gaming hire, putting former Oculus exec, Mike Verdu, as VP of game development. 

According to Bloomberg, Mike Verdu is joining Netflix as Vice President of Game Development. Previously, Verdu worked at Facebook/Oculus to bring games and content to VR headsets. He also previously had a stint working at EA. Now at Netflix, he will be accelerating Netflix's plans to get games showing up on the streaming platform.

One source claimed that Netflix is looking to be able to stream video games to customers within the next year. Rather than launching a separate service for gaming, Netflix's video game offerings will apparently appear alongside other ‘new programming', like new TV shows and movies.

Netflix is also not currently planning to charge extra for a video game tier, although that could change by the time this launches. There is also the chance that Netflix raises its subscription price again for all tiers to compensate for investing in this new content medium.

KitGuru Says: Netflix seems to be set on pushing into gaming, although we may not see any content officially announced until next year. Do you think Netflix can succeed by offering games to stream alongside TV shows and movies? 

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Ubisoft is using machine learning to spot bugs before they make it into the final game code https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/ubisoft-is-using-machine-learning-to-spot-bugs-before-they-make-it-into-the-final-game-code/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/ubisoft-is-using-machine-learning-to-spot-bugs-before-they-make-it-into-the-final-game-code/#respond Thu, 08 Mar 2018 10:13:49 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=366190 Ubisoft has had its issues with buggy game launches in the past and while things have improved over time, this has come at the cost of development time, as play tests get underway. In the future, this may not be an issue though, as the publisher has developed an ‘AI assistant' for its developers, which …

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Ubisoft has had its issues with buggy game launches in the past and while things have improved over time, this has come at the cost of development time, as play tests get underway. In the future, this may not be an issue though, as the publisher has developed an ‘AI assistant' for its developers, which uses machine learning to catch bugs before they even make it into the final game code.

Ubisoft unveiled its ‘Commit Assistant' at a recent developer conference in Montreal, with the goal of saving developers time and reducing the number of potential bugs in a final game. To achieve this, Ubisoft's R&D division partnered up with Canadian universities and fed the assistant with ten years worth of game code from Ubisoft's library. Thanks to machine learning capabilities, this allowed the assistant to learn where mistakes have been made, what corrections were made and predict future mistakes developers might make.

As Ubisoft's video on the subject points out, the Commit Assistant is currently capable of spotting 6 out of 10 coding errors. Currently, the assistant raises a false alarm 30 percent of the time, but over time, this will be reduced as more code is fed through the algorithm.

Once a coding error has been spotted, the assistant can zero in on the most likely cause and suggest fixes for programmers to implement. In the long run, Ubisoft reckons this will save developers around 20 percent of their time. Speaking with Wired, Ubisoft's R&D head, Yves Jacquier spoke a bit about how this will impact the inner workings of Ubisoft's game studios:

“The most important part, in terms of change management, is just to make sure that you take people on board to show them that you're totally transparent with what you're doing with AI – what it can do, the way you get the data. The fact that when you show a programmer statistics that say ‘hey, apparently you're making a bug!', you want him or her to realise that it's a tool to help and go faster. The way we envisage AI for such systems is really an enabler. If you don't want to use that, fine, don't use it. It's just another tool.”

We don't know how this is impacting Ubisoft's current game projects, as the Commit Assistant is only just starting to be introduced. However, this is certainly an intriguing idea. It will be interesting to hear what developers think once the system is put into proper practise.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Using machine learning techniques to catch bugs before they make it into the final game code sounds like a good idea, as long as the system is accurate. Crunch is a very real problem in the Triple A game development space, so this could potentially help alleviate some of that. 

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DICE managed to get a Battlefield 4 tech demo running on iOS https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/dice-managed-to-get-a-battlefield-4-tech-demo-running-on-ios/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/dice-managed-to-get-a-battlefield-4-tech-demo-running-on-ios/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2014 17:05:59 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=220884 DICE has managed to get parts of Battlefield 4 running on iOS thanks to Apple's new low level API, Metal. The tech demo uses the full capabilities of the Frostbite engine including dynamic lighting, large details worlds and map destruction. While it isn't specified exactly what parts of Battlefield 4 were running during the tech demo, …

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DICE has managed to get parts of Battlefield 4 running on iOS thanks to Apple's new low level API, Metal. The tech demo uses the full capabilities of the Frostbite engine including dynamic lighting, large details worlds and map destruction.

While it isn't specified exactly what parts of Battlefield 4 were running during the tech demo, Frostbite owner, Kristoffer Benjaminsson did say that he has high hopes for the Metal graphics API and believes “whatever you can do on a console should be doable on mobile as well”.

bf4_ios_2-1024x718

“It has been quite a challenge. To handle dynamic features such as destruction or moving light sources, most things in the Frostbite engine happen in realtime. This puts extra demand on performance to be able to deliver large, highly detailed worlds with superb visual quality.”

“We were making great progress feature-wise, but hardware and software limitations forced us to either scale down the number of objects and their complexity to retain visual fidelity, or accept lower visual fidelity to cope with a larger number of objects.”

However, the blog post goes on to say that thanks to Apple's Metal API, all of those previous limitations are now gone, allowing DICE to make full use of the hardware available. “Metal has created possibilities previously out of reach and for the first time we can include both high visual fidelity and a large number of objects.”

DICE managed to get “select parts” of Battlefield 4 running on iOS but Benjaminsson stresses that this is purely for technical demonstration purposes. That said, apparently the results are very good so far as there is actually room to squeeze more performance out of iOS devices using the Metal API.

There is no word on what this brings for the future but it is certainly cool to see mobile technology being pushed this hard.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Could we start seeing fully fledged titles start coming to mobile devices over the coming years? Things sure seem to be heading that way…

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A Bungie executive was ‘swatted’ last night https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/a-bungie-executive-was-swatted-last-night/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/a-bungie-executive-was-swatted-last-night/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:57:57 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=220840 An unnamed but confirmed ‘high-up' Bungie executive woke up to a sheriff's police helicopter swarming his home last night after a faked 911 call lead the police to believe that the studio employee had planted explosives in a yard and taken a family hostage, demanding $20,000 for their release. According to Police Chief, Nathan Elledge, …

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An unnamed but confirmed ‘high-up' Bungie executive woke up to a sheriff's police helicopter swarming his home last night after a faked 911 call lead the police to believe that the studio employee had planted explosives in a yard and taken a family hostage, demanding $20,000 for their release.

According to Police Chief, Nathan Elledge, the caller claimed that the man “had an assault rifle” and was demanding a payout for the release of a family he had taken hostage. The 3 AM tactical response lasted for around 45 minutes before law enforcement was able to figure out that the call was a hoax.

download.0.0_cinema_960.0

Detectives figured out that the fake call came from a computer rather than a phone. The police were able to determine that there was no hostage situation taking place at the house but haven't managed to figure out who made the call just yet.

This is just the latest example of prominent gaming industry figures being targeted with hoax 911 calls. Several Twitch streamers have had their homes raided, a YouTuber was swatted while playing Counter Strike not too long ago. Additionally, a plane carrying a Sony Online Entertainment employee had to be grounded after a bomb threat was received.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: At least no property was damaged as the house wasn't raided and nobody was hurt. The police seemed a little more wary of a possible hoax this time around, unlike in other situations which resulted in full on Swat raids. Swatting is a very worrying trend indeed and it needs to be stopped.

Source: Komo News

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Survey claims most devs want to work at Valve https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/matthew-wilson/survey-claims-most-devs-want-to-work-at-valve/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/matthew-wilson/survey-claims-most-devs-want-to-work-at-valve/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2014 10:16:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=208073 According to a survey conducted by the Independent Game Developers Association, most game developers would rather work at Valve than any other company. This may not be all that surprising as Valve is a massive company in the PC gaming space, holding the increasingly popular Steam platform, which boasts a 65 million user count. The survey …

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According to a survey conducted by the Independent Game Developers Association, most game developers would rather work at Valve than any other company. This may not be all that surprising as Valve is a massive company in the PC gaming space, holding the increasingly popular Steam platform, which boasts a 65 million user count.

The survey asked 2200 developers who they'd rather work for, Valve came out on top ahead of ‘My own company', which came in second place. While this might be a good indication, as with all surveys,  results should be taken with a grain of salt as only a small number of people participated.

valve-logo1

Here is the full top ten:

  1. Valve.
  2. My own company.
  3. Activision Blizzard.
  4. Bioware.
  5. Ubisoft.
  6. Current Employer.
  7. Nintendo.
  8. Naughty Dog.
  9. Double Fine.
  10. Bethesda Game Studios.

Valve is a privately owned company, meaning that it does not need to give in to the wishes of Shareholders. The company does not report its earnings to the public and allows staff to work on multiple projects at a time.

Valve works in multiple areas, it maintains the Steam platform- which is constantly receiving updates. In addition, the company is working on virtual reality, multiple popular game series, its own Source Engine, its own Linux based operating system and the Steam Machine initiative. Those are just the things we know about- I imagine that the company has a few secret projects in the works too.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I'm actually a little surprised that Bethesda is so far down the list, then again, being a fan of a studio's games and actually working on them are two very different things. Which developer would you work for if you had the choice? It doesn't have to be on the list. 

Source: Eurogamer

 

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AMD has announced its Mantle SDK private beta programme https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/matthew-wilson/amd-has-announced-its-mantle-sdk-private-beta-programme/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/matthew-wilson/amd-has-announced-its-mantle-sdk-private-beta-programme/#respond Thu, 01 May 2014 13:30:50 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=190583 AMD's graphics API, Mantle, is entering a “new phase of its development cycle” by launching a private beta programme for game developers to test out the Mantle SDK. In support of the beta, AMD has launched a password protected web portal which will allow those who are allowed access to download the tools to develop …

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AMD's graphics API, Mantle, is entering a “new phase of its development cycle” by launching a private beta programme for game developers to test out the Mantle SDK. In support of the beta, AMD has launched a password protected web portal which will allow those who are allowed access to download the tools to develop for Mantle.

“The Mantle NDA Developer SDK website is open to professional game developers that are interested in evaluating and developing games with the Mantle API. Only a limited set of developers are provided access to the Mantle NDA Developer SDK and access is subject to a selection process.”

MantleHLSL

AMD claims that there is “unprecedented demand” for the programme and now that the SDK has “achieved all necessary stability, performance and functionality milestones required to ready it for a broader audience in the developer community.” AMD also said: “Together, AMD and this formidably large community of experienced game developers will not only shape the future of Mantle, but pioneer best practices for working with the low-overhead graphics APIs broadly emergent in our industry.”

For the developers that missed out on the first wave of invitations, AMD is allowing others to register interest for the second wave of invites by emailing mantleaccess@amd.com with the name of their company, name and email of contact point for Mantle access, game title(s) or codenames for which they are interested in evaluating Mantle, and their reasons for requesting Mantle access.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It looks like AMD has no intention of abandoning its graphics API in the wake of the Direct X 12 announcement. Direct X 12 won't be coming until late 2015 so AMD has quite the headstart, maybe this will lead to more games running the API. Have any of you guys tried running a Mantle powered game? What were your performance gains like?

Source: The Inquirer

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Frictional debuts another SOMA trailer https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/frictional-debuts-another-soma-trailer/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 12:47:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=167329 Frictional Games, the developer behind the terrifying first person Amnesia and Penumbra series, has released a new in-game trailer for its next project, SOMA, which shows us its deeply creepy atmosphere, as well as a detailed break down of what the team is focusing on during development. nora ephron essays To set the scene, I …

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Frictional Games, the developer behind the terrifying first person Amnesia and Penumbra series, has released a new in-game trailer for its next project, SOMA, which shows us its deeply creepy atmosphere, as well as a detailed break down of what the team is focusing on during development.

To set the scene, I recommend the trailer first. Make sure your volume is turned up; it won't make you jump, just unnerved:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC9x6Ri8jQk']

So with that sort of environment in mind, what are some of the things Frictional really wants to get right with this game?

  1. Everything is story: Doing away with the old trope that action and puzzling has to be separate from the story (Bioshock Infinite is a late one that's very guilty of this), Frictional will use every moment to advance the plot. Similarly monsters won't attack for no reason, meaning almost all of them have their own unique AI.
  2. Take the world seriously: Everything should be thought of in relevance to the story, so an audio log's placement is as important as its contents.
  3. The player is in charge: No corridors to the next plot point, SOMA will be open and let the player progress how they want. That means no handholding too though.
  4. Trust the player: This one is two fold as it not only means allowing the player to play the game their way, but it means not catering to the lowest common denominator. Instead of forcing you to listen to dialogue, you can skip elements that might be very important to the story. If you don't want to listen to it that's your choice, but it will fundamentally change the game. You won't have hints again later to remind you either.
  5. Thematics emerge through play: No cutscenes, no forced perspectives, let the players play it and figure out what it means. It won't work for everyone, but for those it does, it'll be profound (at least that's the plan).

nope
No you go ahead, I'll be right behind you…

KitGuru Says: So what do you guys think of this design ideas? It's certainly a very different way to look at game development than most major studios do. 

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LucasArts veteran hired by Google for games design https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/lucasarts-veteran-hired-by-google-for-games-design/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/lucasarts-veteran-hired-by-google-for-games-design/#respond Fri, 03 May 2013 10:42:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=133856 Google has hired a veteran of the videogame industry, Noah Falstein, to head up its Game Design division, presumably to work on a new Android title/platform/series – maybe even something that will run on Google Glass headwear. Falstein has been in games design since the 80s, becoming one of the first people to be hired …

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Google has hired a veteran of the videogame industry, Noah Falstein, to head up its Game Design division, presumably to work on a new Android title/platform/series – maybe even something that will run on Google Glass headwear.

Falstein has been in games design since the 80s, becoming one of the first people to be hired on by LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games) in the mid 80s. There he worked on DOS games like Battlehawks 1942, though he's perhaps best known for the Indiana Jones point and click games, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the Fate of Atlantis. And he did Jurassic Park Chaos Island, remember that one?

noah
Dude has a rocking beard too

What Falstein is actually doing at Google though, what platform he's game making for, what project he's working on; it's all completely unknown at this point. We can presume it'll be a title built with the Android platform in mind, but whether that will mean something for smartphones or perhaps Google Glass, we simply don't know.

TechCrunch speculated it could be something bigger though. Some grandiose project that uses game development to highlight other things in our lives or improve them; such as health or education.

KitGuru Says: What kind of games do you guys think Google could be working on? And why would they hire on someone with a career history like Falstein's? Is point and click going to make a resurgence on Glass? 

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British game developer tax breaks delayed again https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/british-game-developer-tax-breaks-delayed-again/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/british-game-developer-tax-breaks-delayed-again/#respond Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:00:56 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=132213 The oft promised tax breaks for British game developers have been delayed once again, this time because the European Commission has announced its intention to perform a full scale investigation into the scheme, suggesting that too hefty a tax cut, could give UK devs. too much an advantage over European competitors. The EU Commission went …

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The oft promised tax breaks for British game developers have been delayed once again, this time because the European Commission has announced its intention to perform a full scale investigation into the scheme, suggesting that too hefty a tax cut, could give UK devs. too much an advantage over European competitors.

The EU Commission went on to suggest that ultimately this would lead to other countries offering tax breaks and that across the whole of Europe, we'd see mass publicly subsidised game development. Is the European Commission aware that these sorts of things happen everywhere else in the world? Try importing cars into Brazil and selling them. It's practically impossible. No one's suggesting the tax breaks have to go that far, but is it so wrong for governments to give their own local produce a little helping hand?

“The market for developing video games is dynamic and commercially promising,” said Joaquin Almunia, European Commission vice-president (via GamesIndustry). “It is not clear whether the taxpayer should be subsidising this activity. Such subsidies could even distort competition.”

He went on to suggest that a market failure would be the only reason to implement such measures, something he argues has yet to take place.

taxbreak
“Tax break this!”
UKIE boss Jo Twist understandably, wasn't happen: “We are extremely disappointed that the European Commission has decided to open an in-depth investigation into production tax credits for the UK games industry,” she said.

“We believe this support is crucial in opening up the opportunity for developers to make culturally British games, but also as a vital incentive for development studios and large multinationals to base their development in the UK and nurture the talent here. We are still confident of having the scheme.”

So now that the investigation has begun, it's not known whether the tax breaks, one of the plus points of last year's budget, will come in to effect at all, let alone when that will – if they do.

KitGuru Says: Shame this one. It would have been nice to see British developers given a bit of a leg up. How do you guys feel about EU involvement in this type of thing?

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