Charlie K.

Last night, Boston Post Mortem hosted a Fireside Production chat with Oleg Brodskiy, a development director with experience ranging from Lord of the Rings Online to the new Civ VII who shared some key takeaways. Here are three that I think apply to indies and solo devs: 1. The needs of a game cannot be predicted using yes or no questions (like in app development). → Predict end goals, work backwards placing check-ins, then start. Check-ins are your green flags in your development marathon. 2. Whack-a-moling problems becomes firefighting and makes you lose perspective. → Slow down this dopamine loop by adding friction to the problem-solving context. Only the reviewer may approve if the assigned goal is done. 3. We succeed when we work together more often than when we don’t. → How might indie and solo teams collaborate for production-like accountability?

4

I love how Evan Dean breaks down how we’re using blockchain immutability and AI to enable our players to drive our game lore forward and break barriers for creators. https://lnkd.in/gn-dmrN5

6

1 Comment

Fascinating analysis on the anti-sybil farming strategy used by Layer-Zero asking sybils to self-report in return for a 15% reward, or forfeit 100% upon discovery- https: //https://lnkd.in/ecaTiS9k

7

1 Comment

Talk with Jesse Eisenberg of DLC.link on how they're using Bitcoin's DLC contracts to create a trustless bridge to Ethereum so you can use your Bitcoin in smart contracts. https://lnkd.in/eEbv69Qs

1

The existence of compliant centralized stablecoins will help TradFi users engage with digital assets seamlessly and without worrying, argues Michael Egorov https://lnkd.in/gwGrhPkt

7

Sumo Digital announced a 15% cut in its workforce, roughly impacting 250 individuals. Among these 250 individuals was the team of Timbre Games, which also confirmed that the studio was being shut down. Timbre Games was founded in 2021 and made a part of Pipework Studios. Although Timbre had yet to launch any games, its website indicates that it was in the middle of two game projects. Unfortunately, game developers face more loss than the parent company when something like this happens. Who knows how Timbre's team might be coping after putting in millions of efforts to build the games and losing everything in a single blink? In their support, this is list 2 of some of the Timbreeos who were impacted by the closure. Every bit from the community counts, so requesting you all to help this reach recruiters and game studios currently hiring. Sophie Mallinson — In 2017, she was Arkane Studios' (Lyon) Narrative Designer who worked on Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. By 2019, she had become a Principal Narrative Designer for Arkane's Deathloop. It is quite interesting to note that after Arkane, she went on to work for EA on Star Wars and later for EA's own studio - Maxis Studios on The Sims Series. Nadia Lohan — With over a decade's worth of experience in Production, before Timbre, Nadia was a Producer at Blackbird Interactive and worked on Minecraft Legends. Notably, she has experience in the VFX industry and coordinated for blockbusters like Mulan, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Maleficent. Vivek Ramkumar — Here's a talented Game Designer who has worked on titles like Sleeping Dogs and Tryst, built his own first-person indie game, and has experience in LiveOps Design. Prior to Timbre, he was a senior Technical Designer for Relic Entertainment. Gerritt Turner — Before Timbre, Gerritt worked at Wizards of the Coast on a lot of Magic: The Gathering's writing, designing and overall creative. They even have an experience in Brand Writing for Hasbro. Yuliia Bocharova — Prior to Timbre, she was a Lead 3D Artist for Blackbird Interactive and worked there for 3+ years. You should check out her ArtStation portfolio: https://lnkd.in/gKEwykG5 Vincent-Gabriel Canadian — A talented VFX Artist who has worked for Studios like Frima, Behaviour Interactive, and Nesting Games. Vincent specializes in real-time VFX for video games! #layoffsupport

88

4 Comments

S&P Global just published another fantastic article on the private credit / tokenization intersection: https://lnkd.in/egRuYFzx In addition to citing our tokenized private credit data, the team also made a special callout to the Hamilton Lane fund on the Polygon Labs network (cc Colin Butler), which we just added to our data platform: https://lnkd.in/eDfe9S23 (currently has $6.3M in outstanding onchain issuance) We'll continue to add every tokenized asset so the industry has one place view key traction, metrics, and participants building the future of finance.

177

14 Comments

As the market continues to mature, Bitcoin’s integration into the DeFi ecosystem will accelerate at a pace that will leave its competitors scrambling to catch up, argues Mona Coyle. https://lnkd.in/ghidQhUt

5

Hexa Sort by Lion Studios is really crushing it with around $15 Mil. a month 🤑 and around 3,5 Mil downloads a month. We had it on our radar for some time, but it seems it reached a record scale just this month, kudos to the team 😎 Why is it so successful? The core gameplay is very unique, as it basically created its own sorting sub-genre in a very crowded segment. The core is deliberately designed to have long level ⌛ times as users can hop in and out of the level at any point, no time or moves pressure. Only space on the board is the main fail state mechanic. If you can't put additional hexes on the board that is full you lose 😵. The other important fact is that new hexes spawn only in trio, so you can plan only 3 moves ahead. This creates the great "one more move" feeling, which make the game so addictive. The visual meta progression of the game is taken from proven hits such as BlockJam 3D, another Hybrid puzzler in Voodoo's portfolio, as well as the engagement mechanics such as the fast trigger events (image3). This setup is now a standard among all major hybrid puzzlers 🧩. What makes Hexa stand out is its core, which is perfectly adapted to the app open interstitials that happen during long level times. Regarding the level mechanics additions, it is somehow light, but it follows modified version of the typical casual puzzle level design, which works well. We have already seen this core being adapted into a puzzle RPG (Hex Heroes) so in the end we could be looking at a fresh new puzzle subgenre. Big casual players are probably already experimenting with it, so its a matter of time until we see "Hexa Crush", "Hexa Scapes" or "Royal Hex" 😅. Join us as we talk about all of this with Felix & Matej 🦩 😎 . Data based on Sensor Tower, thanks for the support 🤗 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/d4_mbfNs 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ddEUQpkR 🗣 Join the discussion on our slack channel: https://lnkd.in/eZXJ2Une #gamedev #gameindustry #mobilegames #gamedesign #mobilegaming #mobilegamedevelopment #useracquisition #gameproduction #games #gamedevelopment #mobiledeveloper #userexperience #hypercasual #hybridcasual #puzzle #hexagons

244

10 Comments

A balanced reward system will need to be transparent, as well as think beyond token utility to consider the quality of engagement value, argues Dave Catudal. https://lnkd.in/gqxmwdfv

4

1 Comment

Really looking forward to speaking at Boston Indies tonight! Many indie developers tend to fall into a trap of building in highly saturated, "red ocean" markets, thinking it's the safer route. We did this for years. But as we all know, these spaces are incredibly competitive and it's difficult to stand out. Over the past few years, we've gradually shifted our focus toward becoming an XR focused studio. I'll share why we made that pivot and highlight some of the strategies we found useful that can help when evaluating any emerging platform, not just XR. https://lnkd.in/e9yMeuCa

25

Capcom has released a less-than-positive annual report. There's nothing critical in it; all the declines are tied to a pause in releases. Capcom certainly has a vast catalog of successful franchises for upcoming releases. Resident Evil (RE) stands out distinctly. While Capcom didn't start with RE, it played a crucial role in their history and has had a significant impact on the gaming industry as a whole. Today, RE comprises 32 releases across 33 platforms. These are incredible numbers and a testament to success. Moreover, judging by Metacritic scores, Capcom manages to maintain a high standard of quality. I gathered a timeline of all RE releases on one website (link in the comments). I thoroughly enjoyed watching videos, reading books, reminiscing about my own experiences playing the games, and playing with friends and colleagues. Here are a few interesting facts about RE and Capcom: - Resident Evil 4 was released on 14 platforms. - The first RE took 3 years to develop, instead of the usual 3-6 months for Capcom in 1996. Consultants hired from the U.S. advised shutting down the project when it was almost complete, predicting its failure. - Devil May Cry and Dino Crisis were born while searching for fresh gameplay for RE. - Capcom was one of the first companies to start paying revenue shares to developers, which is particularly noteworthy for Japanese companies. - Toy Story I and RE I were released around the same time. - For a while, music for RE was composed by a well-known Japanese composer who was said to be deaf. It later turned out that he wasn't actually deaf and didn't compose the music himself. PS. In 2026, the series will celebrate its 30th anniversary, and there will likely be a special release or edition. Or perhaps they'll simply release a version with full DualSense support.

16

3 Comments

Can Blockchain Gaming work? Crypto Gaming/NFTs were supposed to be the next big thing for gaming. Why spend all of that money on skins and collectables, and then not be able to resell them? What happened…gamers hated the concept. From shooters to trading games, developers have tried multiple models that always seem to fail at creating sustainable games and instead only create another pump-n-dump. Do I think it can work? Increasingly No! If there is one studio that can prove the model it is CCP, creators of Eve Online, an MMORPG that has a GDP of over $7M. PCGamer explores the progress they are making in trying to make their next game blockchain based. https://lnkd.in/gV95kvAX

1