Henry Ning

🚀 You have to check out this incredible project update from Mark Tucker at T-Minus Zero Entertainment! The team's passion and dedication are front and center in this milestone. Updates like these are what make #GameDevelopment so exciting. 💪 Curious about the latest progress or craving a behind-the-scenes look at a high-energy, innovative project? Don't miss Mark's full update below - it’s worth every second! 🙌👏 #GameDev #ProjectMilestone #Teamwork #VideoGames

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I would like to share a project status update on what we’ve been working on here at T-Minus Zero. We have successfully wrapped up an internal pre-production milestone which has taken us one step closer towards our next NetEase project review gate, Prototype. As many of you know, these early stages of pre-production are both challenging and crucial to the success of a game. Exiting pre-production without a clear understanding of what you are creating often leads to either excessive spending (more time, people, or both) or the high probability of not shipping at all. To avoid that trap, we have remained hyper-focused on finding the fun of our game. Knowing what makes our game fun will provide a much clearer understanding of where we need to go in later development stages. The good news is, our game, even in its very rough, and early state, has proven to be fun. Throughout this phase, we have made significant progress and made several big pivots, refining our concept, always keeping the focus on creating a fun, and engaging player experience. I am incredibly proud of the team’s perseverance through the uncertainties of prototyping because… it’s not always fun, finding the fun.  Our game has some unique elements that have required us to trailblaze different approaches. Some worked, some didn’t – and others won’t have clear answers for some time to come. This is what makes game development incredibly hard. When you trailblaze, you make the best decisions you can with limited information, move forward, learn, and do it again and again. There is no map to tell you if you are trailblazing towards a cliff, or towards a hidden treasure! To be successful in navigating the unknown, you need a team that trusts each other and can solve hard problems together. What gives me confidence that our trailblazing is heading in the right direction is the fact that our team remained disciplined and never let a setback drag us down. Not only did we learn a lot about our game during this early development stage; we also learned a lot about our team. We have now set out on the last leg of our Prototype deliverable where we will continue plotting the course we charted from our previous milestone. Over the next seven months, we will work diligently to continue to showcase what makes our game truly unique. This phase will continue to emphasize fast iteration and prioritize a fun player experience. Even with the success of our last milestone, we are still trailblazing. It won’t be easy, and I am sure we will hit some unforeseen problems – but I have confidence we have the right team to get through it and go the distance. While I cannot share any details on the game at this moment, rest assured the team is working hard to create something we think players will really enjoy. We appreciate your continued support and enthusiasm. Together, we are on the path to creating something truly exceptional.

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Our f1000 research paper on indie game development, "Building Your Dream Team: How Indie Teams Can Form, and Thrive Together," is now indexed in PubMed of NIH! Kudos to my co-author Afia Adiba ! 🎉 The paper delves into the challenges faced by indie game development teams striving to create blockbuster games. It outlines a three-layer approach focusing on finding and hiring suitable team members, and fostering a productive and harmonious work environment. Have you explored our methodology? Share your thoughts on our approach derived from experience! Check out the publication here: https://lnkd.in/gFkEtpBn #IndieGameDevelopment #DreamTeam #GameDev #PubMed #NIH #ResearchPaper

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Marvel Rivals is going to be a goldmine for NetEase Games 💥 With less than 30 characters, it showcased how a 6v6 open role queue game can achieve near-perfect balance (yes, almost) during its closed beta test. What Overwatch has been struggling to deliver, Marvel Rivals has already nailed. 🚀 I checked the SteamDB charts, and to my surprise, the game had a peak of 52,671 players during its short stint, with nearly 20,000 playing till the very end. Even at the last minute, matchmaking was quick, showing just how enthusiastic players were. I played until the server shutdown kicked me out. 📊 Interestingly, I saw multiple posts on the subreddit and Facebook groups mentioning how addictive the game is. From my experience, I can see it disrupting players' lives (in a good way, of course). 💌 Since Hi-Rez Ventures' Paladins in 2017, this is the first arena shooter that truly hooked me, even in its closed beta. I never imagined I'd spend so much time (~50 hours, nearly 250 matches) in a game where progress would be wiped out when the CBT ended. Big thanks to Dominik Graner for the key. 😉 At first glance, the game may seem like an Overwatch clone with Marvel heroes. But it delivers so much more. The well-thought-out character designs, music, voice lines, and gameplay demonstrate the absolute craftsmanship NetEase Games has achieved under Danny Koo's leadership. 📈 Most characters resemble their original comic book origins, and signature moves like Hulk Smash, Thor's God of Thunder etc are a pleasure to watch. The video in this post features Punisher's ultimate - Judge, Jury, Executioner. 🔥 While the game didn't reveal much about monetization, the demo battle pass hints that it will rake in money like crazy when it launches globally. I hope the game will not go toward pay-to-win mechanisms. 💸 I was also impressed with how stable the game is, at least on consoles. As an Xbox user, my default server was Virginia, and even with over 200 ping, the game ran seamlessly. I had tons of fun playing Marvel Rivals, and I can't wait to see how the game shapes up when it launches globally. Hopefully soon.

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Why I'm Going to G-Star in Korea For us, G-Star is one of the biggest conferences alongside ChinaJoy, Gamescom, and GDC. People from all over the world flock to Busan. Tons of events take place at G-Star, such as parties and after-parties, which are an opportunity to not only make direct deals, but also test out ideas about new products. And that's precisely what I plan to do this year. We'll check how applicable new art services are. We'll test developments in narrative design and localization. It's important to gauge how our upgrades measure up in today's market. G-Star in Korea is an awesome platform to talk to industry experts and discuss the biggest thorns in our sides as well as successful ways of combating them. So it'll be a great opportunity to brush up on my small talk skills. It's important for me to understand the cultural code of the location where the conference is being held — to feel it at my fingertips. Korea is brimming with passionarity. That shines through in their technology, cars, and cosmetics brands. I always do my best to soak in the lifestyle and get to know the traditions through the local cuisine. All of that gives me a deeper understanding of what makes my clients tick. What's more, I really appreciate the fresh, clean air in Korea. I'd love to charge up on that for the year ahead. #Gtar

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At the heart of EVERYWHERE is ARCADIA! ARCADIA is our building tools, self-publishing system, and library of assets and community-made content. Check the basics of building in ARCADIA out in the video below! #gamedev #UGC #gamedevjobs

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If you want to learn more on how we are doing things here at Voodoo, check out this great podcast from Deconstructor of Fun. Voodoo has been successfully transforming its processes and games in the last 3 years to create bigger and better titles each time. And this is only the beginning as our ambitions go even higher 🚀

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So sorry to hear about layoffs at Modern Wolf, with 6 staff members being affected. The news broke last night, with my former CA colleague George Willard posting the news, as well as providing information about those also laid off to support re-hiring as quickly as possible. You can find that here: https://lnkd.in/eEXWSgNQ To those impacted by these layoffs, please find a comprehensive list of resources, below: 🥇First, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past weeks I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines: 🎨 Art, Animation, VFX and UI: This resource contains around 1,200 jobs worldwide across all links. Link: https://lnkd.in/eu2bjadW ⚙ Engineering and Programming This resource lists just over 1,900 jobs worldwide across all links. It also talks about interview tips and questions to practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/etPj22BE 🕹 Quality Assurance: This resource lists over 450 QA jobs worldwide. This post also talks about the craft of QA and contains tips and interview practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/dwwVjZuc 📑 Game Production: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also contains info about game production as a whole and GDC talks. Link: https://lnkd.in/gxDvFM-Z 📢 Marketing & Community: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also gives an intro into game marketing and community management. Link: https://lnkd.in/e5MuViug 🎶 Audio and Sound Design: This resource lists around 190 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/eSkPSsWf 📠 Studio Support, HR, Recruitment and BizDev: This resource lists around 290 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/ePG57_7v ⚙ IT, Helpdesk and DevOps: This resource lists around 140 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/e8ZsuiZh 🎮 Game Design: This resource lists around 480 jobs worldwide. https://lnkd.in/dCv_hQXv 🥈 Second, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ 🥉 Third, If you have worked in publishing, please message me. I am looking for quite a few roles right now! ⬅ 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #layoffs #gamesindustry #jobsingames #modernwolf

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This is Kwan Cheng, General Manager of Eggy Party at NetEase Games, at ChinaJoy 2024, explaining why they are investing so much in AI-UGC, and how the AI Emote Creator they recently integrated into their flagship game, Eggy Party, allows millions of players to generate custom avatar animations from videos, straight from the game. With this User-Generated Emote technology, Eggy Party players become creators, able to bring and share their identity in the game through custom animations and post amazing content on TikTok, showcasing their creations. This strategy helped NetEase capture hundreds of millions of views on social media and drive great levels of user acquisition! Want to have this technology in your game? 👉 Reach out to Kinetix! #UGC #AI

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🖐 5 Questions with EA SPORTS FC’s Head of Engineering! ⚙ Jinsong Li, Head of Engineering for EA SPORTS FC, discusses the making of EA SPORTS FC 25 and careers in tech! ➡ Check out the full Electronic Arts (EA) article here: https://shorturl.at/P04QK

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During my time at Zynga from 2011-13, cross-promotion on Facebook was a key competitive advantage that basically ensured the successful launch of new games. However, as players shifted to mobile, that advantage significantly diminished. Squad Busters’ impressive 8.8M downloads and $1.1M in revenue on launch day—Supercell’s highest-ever—make me wonder if cross-promotion is back. Despite post-launch retention challenges, Squad Busters attracted 40 million sign-ups in just five weeks. Join us for a Growth Marketing roundtable discussion on Squad Busters’ launch success and hear expert insights from industry leaders Jen Donahoe and Gavin Leung as we explore Supercell’s strategies. Key topics include: • The impact of big-budget ad campaigns • The successful preregistration drive • Launch day results Date: Thursday, September 5th, 2024 (tomorrow) Time: 9 - 10 AM PST Type: Open to anyone Sign-Up Here: https://lnkd.in/gg9Y9CGu

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With a snap of the Infinity Gauntlet, Tencent dominates another category. This time, ‘shooter/platformer.’  Economy designers, take notes! Feature scope and production values are as eyebrow-raising as we’d expect from TC. In April ‘23, Metal Slug Awakening’s CN release immediately took the market-leading position from Contra (2017, NetEase). Then in July ‘24, it finally released worldwide. Retention is on-par with Contra, but the post-IDFA handicap is a significant headwind. Looks like a $200-$250M product given this trajectory. Not bad for a platformer / run n’ gun.

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Sharing insights on ever growing gaming industries both on rev and users base. How can we actually get these massive group of gamers to merge into Web3 ecosystem effectively. GAMES WORLD ASSET is the way. Let gamers have a chance to be a stakeholder in big IP games owning the rights.

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I am very sorry to hear of three games layoff situations from 8/28/24 - 8/30/24: Ballistic Moon, Ouka Studios (parent NetEase Games), and Toadman Interactive --- FOR THOSE AFFECTED - WELCOME TO AMIR SATVAT'S GAMES COMMUNITY "Number 1 For 'Games Jobs Resources'" - Google Search We will not rest until every gamer is employed. OUR TOOLS WORK - We reach over 400,000 unique viewers monthly and nearly 4,000,000 unique viewers annually across all platforms. - Our games community has facilitated over 2,500 jobs and 46,000 coaching conversations, the largest impact of any games individual or community in the universe. - Our data shows that we can double your job-seeking success from 6% to 12% on average for those who engage with all our tools over a multi-month period. - Over 20% of all trackable games jobs found touch some part of our community. - Always free (nothing wrong with those who charge; just our choice), always with love, and always without ulterior motives. AMIRSATVAT.COM - Our main hub offers 19 resources for games employment assistance with an uplifting, easy-to-use design. - Use our template for Games Org Support Posts (Category 4, Resource 13) to maximize the visibility of those affected at your games company. We have completed 105 posts highlighting over 2,500 candidates. Discord - Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, a complementary, live, games career support community with over 5,500 members. Currently open to new members. LinkedIn - Follow me and join the discussion here on LinkedIn, with over 95,000 members and 1-3 daily posts providing support and career assistance in the games industry, the largest Top Voice games community on the platform. How the Games Community Can Help - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments increase resource visibility. - Join Our Movement: Choose one or several of the 17 ways to help gamers on AMIRSATVAT.COM under "How You Can Help," or provide advice on Discord.

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Stoked to reach the milestone of 50+ player reviews on Hive Jump 2: Survivors, just a day after 1.0 launch. https://lnkd.in/g2yMxnDa That "Very Positive" review label matters a lot to Steam when deciding how "valid" our game is (not to mention impacting customer perceptions). It's a hard label to achieve. It has to come from paying players. It excludes any players who received a promotional key (hence the two numbers in the GIF). It also filters by your languages preferences and region, to some extent, too. So, yes, stoked to say the least that our team at Graphite Lab has met this mark with our first sequel. Of course, if you want to add to the good vibes with your own review, all you have to do is pop over to Steam and for the price of a latte you too can see what all the fuss is about. https://lnkd.in/g2yMxnDa If you are curious about the impact reviews have on games released through Steam, take a look through this 2022 article. It gets right to the point and (for the most part) is still valid today. https://lnkd.in/g9D5feGC

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🚨 We're thrilled to welcome Jason Fung, former Global Head of Gaming at TikTok, as our new CMO at Everreach Labs! 🚨 Jason is joining our stellar team, which includes: - Phil O'Connor (Design Director), previously Lead Game Designer at Ubisoft (Far Cry III) - Ramin Shokrizade (CRO), previously Meta Game Designer at Wargaming (World of Tanks) - Aurélien P. (CTO), previously Head of Innovation at Nintendo Just three months ago, we launched our project to the public and in another three months, REVENGE pre-alpha will be live ; here’s a glimpse of our recent milestones: - 💰 Raised over $3 million in funding. - 👥 Assembled a powerhouse team of 45 full-time members from Ubisoft, Tencent, Nintendo, Wargaming, and Gameloft. - 🌐 Gained more than 260,000 followers across social channels. - 🤝 Partnered with over 50 industry giants, including Epic Games Store, Steam, Twitch, Loaded, AWS, Crypto.com, Gate.io, MEXC… - 🧠 Onboarded visionary advisors and business angels like Dingaling (THE GOAT), Sky Wee, Shan, 0xSun, and Jeff Nowak from Binance, Maven Capital… - Listed on Epic Games Store and Steam. In fact, we’re not just listed—we’re trending! We’ve broken into the TOP 60 Most Wishlisted games worldwide. Our upcoming game, REVENGE, promises to revolutionize the gaming experience... Imagine live stream spectators actively interacting with streamers in real-time, influencing almost every aspect of the game. So what's coming next? - 🎥 A trailer release this month ; get ready for the first gameplay footages. - 💸 Additional funding rounds in progress. - 🎮 Early testing with streamers and partnerships with creators, working hand in hand with Loaded the most hyped talent agency at the moment, which recently launched Helldivers II. - 🚀 REVENGE release and our $EVER token launch in September. Our roadmap is packed. 📥 Stay tuned, because you won’t want to miss what’s coming next! https://lnkd.in/eSqPiG_6 Ethan Cohen Phil O'Connor Jason Fung Aurélien P. Ramin Shokrizade Quentin GABRIEL Mike Maksim Quyet Ha Chase Marotz Shelby S. Ryan Teo Jia How Lee Nevzat Aydin Philipp Dobrusin Cloé Gabriel

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In late 2019 as Covid was kicking off in China, I had decided to move away to support the wife and made the intention to work remotely, contribute to OSS, and become web3 native. 👨‍💻 This move and change sent me into a state of deep focus and dedication where I contributed a huge chunk of my days towards this endeavour. 👀 4 years later (while operating as a PM/engineer), I'm proud to say that I feel like have grokked a ton of html, css, next.js/react.js/svelte, react/next hooks/providers/routes/middleware/ssr/edge functions, javascript/typescript, some solidity/vyper, many web3 client frameworks, weird web stuff like CORS, services like oAUTH, and middleware that handles permissions or weird routing checks which I had never ever touched on a web client... hoooooollllyyyyy f***. 🤯 On top of this, add all the DAO grants, quadratic voting, incentive design, veOCEAN, data farming, and all the technical/operational knowledge gained from designing/building systems for Ocean Protocol... Distributing $3.5m+ USD in grants to 150+ projects, and even more through our core protocol incentives. 🧠 A big part of this drive was rooted in making a shift into becoming web3 native and learning as much as I can about this space. 🤩 Another part was in arming myself with a lot of the web development tools I felt were missing. 🛠 Other goals included building a pseudoanonymous identity that was rooted in proof-of-work. 🕵‍♂️ I couldn't have prepared myself enough for all the infinite garden philosophies and lessons rooted in positive-sum games. Values that I believe everyone everyone joining this space should learn. 🖖 🏗 But for me, building starts now. 🏗 I have recently focused on making some changes so I can focus 100% of my time as an IC. I believe that not only will I increase my output and impact, but that I'll be able to contribute more to the ecosystem... perhaps even shipping more legos like our web3 auth tokengated chatgpt. 🤖 https://lnkd.in/gHwCyEED I believe there are so many incredible opportunities and ideas in this space that are yet to be explored and nurtured. 🌍 I look forward to continue engraving dark green cubes onto my digital timeline like a badge of honor and breaking the 1.5k contributions/yr plateau. 🎖 Let's get it! 🚀

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TONIGHT AT 6:30 PM join us for an improvised version of PVP Circuit and help us rebuild our local community brick by brick. I still can't believe I get to work in the video game industry. My 6-year-old would laugh, and then cry once she realized what it means to work in the creative technology sector. That's why IMO everyone could use some levity during these unprecedented times. Join us for a fun evening to raise funds for the Trevor Project. Event link >>> https://lnkd.in/g7tBuP6d Frequently Asked Questions: What if I can't attend the event? - If you can't make it, please consider purchasing a ticket to help us raise money for charity or get one on behalf of someone impacted by layoffs. What if I want to join but can't justify the cost? - If you want to join but find the cost prohibitive, DM me and we'll make it happen (see point above). Do I have to pitch at the event? - No, you don't have to pitch if you prefer to observe. It’s a great way to see how it's done. Will there be another event like this? - We plan to host our community again, but I can't specify if this event will be the focus. #gamesindustry #event #comedy <3

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A frightening truth: setting out to create XR products has meant crafting for an uncertain future 😱 This morning Apple announced Vision Pro is coming here to Japan at the end of this month. It’s not only a validator for the field of spatial computing (AR/VR), but also for our local market, with regular people here finally getting to experience the newest evolution of head-mounted displays. There are now hundreds of millions of VR users out there, and more are steadily coming to understand this unique way of experiencing content firsthand. These include many of the stakeholders that have been called to greenlight these sort of projects/products over the years without really understanding the opportunity. That’s all about to change. For nearly 2 decades (yes, before Oculus), I’ve set out crafting virtual worlds and spatial content you can explore via head-mounted displays. The market is now coalescing in ways it never has before, changing the way we propose and pursue these initiatives. Join me, Ryan Canuel, vickie nauman, and David Gene Oh next week as we discuss what’s next in our #AWE panel: FUTURIZE: CRAFTING TOMORROW'S GAMES AND PRODUCTS https://lnkd.in/gGuvXx6G

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